Cos' if you go, I go
by Peacheh-Kate
Summary: A little bit of everything. Tiva, McAbby and Jibbs. Heavily Tiva. I can write that the easiest, as you may tell. Some of the writing may be a little stagnant. I tend to get inspired at ridiculous times of night.
1. Prologue

_**Prepare yourself: **For I am going to shamelessly advertise for the sequel to this story, here on this chapter. Shamelessly. Okay, there is shame. Anyway. It's something unpredictable needs some love and attention. It's the promised sequel that took me a devastatingly long time to get around to amidst my procrastination and terrible organisational skills. _

_You gave this story such love! Can you not spare some for it's spawn? Too weird? Whatever. I'm plugging. Would you like a link?_

_ /s/5275909/9/ [Link won't work. Grr]_

_=] Somebody gets poisoned within like a few seconds. And and and there _is _Tiva, I swear. Go read?_

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_Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or anything else that might happen to come up in this story that you watched at the movies last night or heard on the radio this morning. _

_Totally a Tiva, McAbby and Jibbs. I'm a relationshipper. Gotta love the love. _

_This is quite a long story. I have so far wrote about 40k words and have 18 chapters. Its still being written and I will post a chapter every other day providing I remember. I should do though. If I don't kick me or something. Next update: Tuesday. _

_P.S. This doesn't count as a chapter, it's a prologue. Its purely Tiva at the beginning really though we get some McAbby later on. Much loves kate xxx_

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Prologue

The team had just had one of the roughest weeks so far, Tony's beloved car had been blown to smithereens, and everybody believed he had been inside when it happened. Ziva and Abby had been the worst affected, although Ziva tried not too show it. Some time later however, Tony had walked joyously back into the bullpen, a grin on his face that failed to stretch to his eyes. The rest of the day had passed in a blur to Tony and Ziva; Tony wanted to explain everything to Ziva, while she wanted to shoot him for lying to them all.

The two didn't get a chance to talk to each other that day as Tony was constantly being harassed by several members of the team, and others. He was hit on the back hugged and shook hands with people he didn't even recognise. By the time he had managed to thin the crowds of congratulators it was well past leaving time and he was saddened to notice Ziva had left. He quickly extracted himself from the well wishers and headed out of the building.

Ziva was already at home, she had changed out of her work clothes into a simple black vest top and a pair of black combat pants. She was walking barefooted through her house humming to music blasting out from her CD player; she was heading towards the kitchen when she heard a knock on the door. She pulled the gun she had concealed at the base of her back out and slowly headed towards the door. When she got to her door she leaned up onto her toes to peer through the peep hole in the door. She leaned back and quickly pulled the door open; Tony looked her up and down before walking in.

"Expecting trouble?" He queried eyeing the gun she was still clutching; she shrugged before closing the door behind Tony. She slowly turned to face him, the gun remaining in her hand, hanging by her side. She stared at Tony directly in his eyes; it was so intense he had no option but to look away. Turning to face her CD player he slowly walked towards it and switched it off, she remained burning her gaze into his back.

"Why are you here Tony?" She couldn't help but keep the bitterness out of her voice, but she didn't really care, it was how she felt. Betrayed. She continued to stare at him, softer now, as he struggled to get the words out to form what he was trying to say.

"I, I, Well, I want to tell you what was going on with, well everything." He looked down at the carpet at this point and so Ziva walked into her kitchen, hearing Tony sigh as she did so. She came out a few minutes later with a bottle of whisky and a couple of glasses. She sat down on her sofa and placed the bottle and glasses on the table in front of her. She poured out two glasses and picked one up. She leant back into the chair, bringing her legs up and sitting cross legged. She went to take a swig of the liquid sloshing around in her glass but Tony caught her eye.

"You're meant to drink it." She stated before continuing to pour her own drink down her throat. Tony grabbed the glass and collapsed onto the sofa next to her, drinking the whole serving in one shot. She raised an eyebrow at him; she leant across and topped up both of their glasses. After a few minutes of silence Tony began to talk. Ziva sat up a little, wriggling in her chair as he embarked on retelling her everything that happened to him.

"Her name was Jeanne Benoit. Director told me to get close to her, her dad is Rene Benoit, La Grenouille. I was dating her for nearly seven months, I, I really cared for her. Got too involved, was a fool." He sighed looking down at his empty glass. He began to tell Ziva the story of everything that had happened to him in the past few months. She sat silently listening to his every word. After he had managed to retell everything he could remember after four glasses of whisky.

"Want to know something Tony?" He nodded at her, reaching for the bottle of whisky, pouring them both another shot. "I did the same thing; I fell for somebody I know I shouldn't have." She looked deep into Tony's eyes as he brought his glass up to his mouth. It never quite made it as he instead leant forward and kissed Ziva on the lips. He pulled back and stared into her eyes, she seemed a bit shocked. He retreated backwards slightly about to mouth an apology. She didn't give him a chance however, as she quickly returned his kiss, soft and quick. Tony took this and quickly pressed his lips back against hers, his hand found its way into her hair while his other was trying to put his glass on the table.

It was 0530, the following day and Ziva had just woken up in her bed, though she couldn't quite remember how she got there. That wasn't what seemed to have woken her though; no it was the man who had just wrapped his arm around her. She gently trued to turn around in his arms, she realised half way through this she wasn't wearing her pajamas, or in fact anything. She turned to face the man and what she saw was quite a surprise.

"TONY!" She exclaimed, obviously quite surprised to see him there. He shot up off the bed, and although Ziva was struggling to suppress the worry and anger she couldn't help but burst out laughing. He had reacted in exactly the same way when they were undercover as Sophie and Jean-Paul Renier. He suddenly looked down at himself and grabbed the blanket around the bottom of the bed wrapping it around his mid-section.

"Ziva? What, happen- Oooh, Flashback. Wow." Ziva threw a pillow at him at his last comment. He knelt down on the bed, her blanket still wrapped around him, the bed clothes were wrapped around Ziva.

"You remember?"

"Yeah, you don't?"

"No. Well bits and pieces, last thing I actually remember is when you picked me up. It's all a bit hazy." She answered, Tony quickly filled in some things she could remember, some things however didn't need to be spoken aloud. It was obvious why they woke up wrapped around each other.

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_So let me now what you think. Bearing in mind, I have already wrote 18 chapters for this. You're getting them whether you like it or not. Love Kate xxx_


	2. Surprise

_Disclaimer in first chapter. First proper chapter. Hope you enjoy. xx_

_Thank you to my lovely reviewers. I hope you all enjoy the following, let me know what you think. _

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Chapter One.

It was six weeks after Tony and Ziva had gotten much too close, and Tony was seemingly suffering the brunt of Ziva's rage. He had commented how it must be that time of the month at which she threw a stapler at him and muttered something under her breath. Nobody heard her and nobody really wanted to know what she had said, or they were just too afraid to ask. There were no cases to be working on so the three junior agents were instead sat typing up reports or playing games.

Tony's current favourite game was trying to see how far he could push Ziva before she snapped. The two had long ago put their little rendezvous behind them, as neither could remember the exact details, and neither wanted anybody else to know about it. Although both had been trying to try to remember more details about the night, albeit for slightly different reasons.

It was not until a week later that Tony finally found out the reason for Ziva being so stressed, he had thought for a while she was being sent back to Israel. He feared that to be the case so much he actually turned up at her house again. When he knocked on the door he received no answer, he attempted to pick the lock Ziva having taught him how to pick basic locks previously. He cursed as ten minutes later he still hadn't gotten in; trust Ziva to have the most complicated lock possible. Instead, he sat on the step outside the door to her apartment, wondering if she would be out for long.

Tony had been sitting on the doorstep for about fifteen minutes before Ziva's car pulled up to her house. He watched as she sped into a car parking space and climb out slinging her work bag over her shoulder. He figured she must have gone straight from work to wherever she had been; only just arriving home. She got as close as a few feet away before she noticed Tony sitting on her door step. She pulled her keys out of her pocket and unlocked the door, leaving it open for Tony to follow her in.

"Where yah been? I've been sat outside for like twenty minutes." He sat on her sofa after dropping his own bag on the floor. He kicked his shoes off and shrugged his jacket off his shoulders, pulling his tie loose. He sighed and stretched, turning to look at Ziva who was watching him with an amused expression on her face.

"Comfortable?" She asked, he nodded his reply, before asking if she had any food, he was starving. She threw an apple at him. "You just turn up at my house uninvited and want me to feed you?" He laughed and bit into the apple.

"No, I wanted to ask you why you've been so grumpy lately, I was wondering if you wanted to talk."

"Last time we 'talked' we couldn't remember what happened."

"So, no whisky?" His tone became more serious now. "You're not going back to Israel are you?" Ziva looked into his eyes and frowned slightly.

"No. Its, erm, a bit bigger than that. What has been on my mind." Tony looked at her and she went and sat on the chair opposite from Tony. She was holding something in her hand; to Tony it looked like a Polaroid photo. He watched her as she fiddled with it, obviously unsure of how to act and what to say. Tony decided he should take charge.

"What's that?" He asked pointing to the photo in her hand; she looked at it, and handed it over to Tony. He stared at it for a few minutes, before looking up at Ziva, who was incredibly interested in the hem of her shirt. She was twisting a strand of thread around her fingers, pulling out the stitches on the hem of her blouse. "You, You're… you're pregnant?" He looked at her for a reaction, she sighed and nodded slightly. "Congratulations." He announced.

"What?" She was shocked, he just congratulated her on getting pregnant, did he really not know what was going through her head, the same things were going through his head. She looked up at him, but he wasn't there. She heard the door open and felt the draught of cold air blow over her skin. She looked towards it and saw the doorway empty, Tony's jacket, shoes and bag had disappeared and as she stood up to close the door she heard the distant rumble of a car engine. She sighed and shut the door with a snap. She walked back towards her kitchen thinking it would ease her stomach if she ate something. It was then that she noticed something on the floor. She bent down and picked up her sonogram picture, she glared at it before dropping it on the chair.

The weeks passed by with neither Ziva nor Tony attempting conversation with the other unless pertaining to the case they had been working on. Ziva had found herself looking at baby items when she walked or drove past them on the streets and shocked herself when she actually began planning a nursery. Tony, although he had ran away from the initial prospect that he may have gotten Ziva pregnant, was slowly coming around to the idea. However, the two were too proud to back down at all. He instead had found himself watching Ziva more often than before, specifically her stomach.

Tony found that Ziva seemed no different in her attitude; he had thought pregnant woman were more emotional or threw up a lot. Ziva was perhaps colder than normal but he decided that was just because he ran out on her. He had noticed one thing, the sonogram she had shown him, was now being carried around in a pocket on her trousers. He noticed how her hand always seemed to be in that one pocket of her trousers, it had taken him several days to find out what it was.

It was now three weeks since Tony had discovered he had an unborn child. Ziva had seemed to come to a decision that she could raise the child on her own, and spent most of her spare time pricing up baby items. She had not quite figured out how to tell her father she was in fact pregnant and she didn't think he would take too well to her being so. She was now ten weeks pregnant, and had booked another scan for two weeks time. She had spent the last few days deciding whether to tell Tony she had a scan or not. In the end she decided against it.

At NCIS the team yet again were without a case, except unusually the bullpen was void of jokes, sarcasm and flying wads of paper. All three agents were busy typing at their computers. McGee was fine tuning the last few chapters of his next book, to be released sometimes in the future. Ziva had written three letters, five e-mails and mentally scripted several phone conversations, based on how she should tell her father she was pregnant. None of the scenarios in her head played out very well. Tony, however, was busy checking his and his families' medical records. The reasoning behind it was as a way of talking to Ziva. If he could be telling her about his medical history for the sake of the baby then he could perhaps get to apologise to her.

It got to half past four when Gibbs finally told the team they could leave, they all obediently shut off their computers slung their backpacks over their shoulders and made for the elevator in unison. Ziva got there first and held it open for Tony and McGee, who both jogged to catch it. The elevator ride was silent, McGee's mind was still on that line he just couldn't get right. Tony trying to catch Ziva's eye, who was in a world of her own, mentally trying not to shoot her father.

The three team members headed off to their prospective homes, each with their minds on their own business. Tony had watched Ziva as she climbed into her car, she quickly sped off the naval base, and McGee sedately followed her. Tony watched the two disappear before climbing into his own car. Even then he still didn't move at all he didn't even put his keys in the ignition. Lucky thing too, he had been sat there for five minutes when his cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his bag and flipped it open

"DiNozzo." He listened to the mumblings on the other side for a few minutes

"Got it Boss, I'm still on base, I'll go get the truck." He offered. He waited for Gibbs acknowledgment, when he got it he swiftly stepped out of his car and relocked it. He walked swiftly back into the building. Ziva had performed an illegal U-turn to head off in the direction of the crime while McGee was almost going the right way as he was. Ziva arrived to the scene first, pulling her car up alongside the police car already there. She got out and walked towards an LEO stood near the tape cutting off the house of what Ziva presumed contained a dead body. She stood talking quietly to the LEO on the other side of the tape, him telling her everything that he knew. By the time he had finished his brief McGee had turned up and joined them, Ziva having quickly caught him up and by the time he had finished DiNozzo and Gibbs had arrived in the truck, followed a few minutes later by Ducky and Palmer.

McGee led the way into the house, Ducky and Palmer behind him, Gibbs and DiNozzo behind them and Ziva bringing up the rear. Ziva's early guess had been pretty accurate, dead petty officer. Female, red-hair Gibbs type, she was slim, but quite muscular, she had an obvious gun shot to her head, her hands tied behind her back and a cloth over her eyes. Execution style killing, Ducky was already leaning over the body, McGee was taking photos and DiNozzo was busy sketching the scene. Gibbs turned to look at Ziva to tell her to bag and tag but instead he said:

"Are you alright David?" The smell of the crime scene seemed to be making her feel slightly queasy, she shook her head at Gibbs before running out of the house to throw up outside. Gibbs frowned at her as she ran out; he quickly re-delegated tasks leaving Tony to take pictures and sketch and told McGee to bag and tag. He then asked Ducky the TOD and COD, received an estimate and headed outside to find Ziva. He found her quite quickly she was leaning against the NCIS van her hands resting on her knees, a bottle of water in on of them, her head bowed.

"What's the matter? If you've got a bug or something I don't really want you at work." He tried to get her to look at him but she failed to keep eye contact. "You're sick Ziva, go home damnit." He walked off, not giving her the option of staying. She didn't move for the next five minutes, until she saw Palmer walking backwards out the door, indicating he was bringing a gurney out containing a corpse. Ziva quickly headed off to her car before she threw up again.

Ziva climbed into her car and sped off, Tony watching as her car disappeared around a bend in the road. He quickly got his mind back on task by slinging his bag more securely on his shoulder and picking up one of the evidence boxes. He wedged it under his arm and picked up the camera bag, throwing it over his shoulder to join his rucksack. He led the way out of the room Tim tailing him a few steps behind.

Ziva didn't turn up for work that night, Tony and McGee spent the night typing away at their computers. Abby in her lab processing the evidence, not their there was much of that. The killer policed his brass, there were no finger prints. The only piece of evidence they had managed to collect that had any chance of leading them to a killer was a hair. Abby had quickly plugged it into her machine to attempt at getting a DNA match.

When Ziva arrived the following morning, she arrived with three cups of coffee and a caf-pow. She almost laughed when she saw what was in front of her. Tony had fallen asleep leaning back in his chair, hands behind his head, feet on the desk. McGee's hands were still poised on his keyboard, one finger hovering over the F key, the other over the J key. Ziva walked over to him and placed a coffee on the desk in front of him.

She gently leaned over and nudged him awake, he mumbled something and she softly whispered the time to him. He immediately leapt up staring at Gibbs desk, where a coffee sat, one Ziva had just placed there. McGee looked down at his own desk to see a coffee sat there, he thanked Ziva who had walked over to Tony to wake him up. Normally she would have whispered something mean, or slutty in his ear. Instead she placed the coffee on his desk and knocked his feet off the table.

It was actually a good balancing act, his make-shift bed. So when his feet hit the floor his chair shot straight and he nearly flew forwards into his desk. He quickly righted himself and looked around the bullpen. Ziva and McGee were both at their own desks and starting work. A coffee perched on the edge of his desk. He picked it up and sipped it, it being exactly how he liked it, more sugar than coffee.

The team worked in silence for the remainder of the day, they only ever hit dead ends and after running through about three different systems and Abby still had nothing from the hair, Tony kept suggesting they just shove the case into unsolved. Behind Gibbs' back of course. The next day was almost identical, lots of typing, no field work. It was only on the third day when they made any head way.

"Corner store robbery. Guy in a bloody shirt carrying a .45 calibre Jericho 941 which is exactly what our petty officer was shot with. I get all that, and that the guy left fingerprints, DNA all that jazz. What I don't get is why he murdered somebody then went and robbed a convenience store." Tony uttered as Gibbs sped along another road, on their way to Clark Sampson's house Abby having quickly identified him from facial recognition software and found his address.

They arrived at his house in less than three minutes and all four pulled out their guns and they quickly identified Sampson and brought him into NCIS. Within an hour he had confessed to the murder and two convenience store robberies. He broke down under Gibbs harsh gaze, Tony, Ziva and Tim sharing a joke about what sort of a wimp could kill a person. The three were happily talking as they made there way to their desks to grab their bags.

Tony invited the two out for drinks, aiming the comment towards Ziva. McGee accepted the offer and went to forward it onto Abby while Tony watched Ziva for a reaction. After a few minutes she looked up, asking Tony if he said something. He repeated the question and she politely turned him down, she wrapped her coat over her shoulders and hitched her bag over the top of her coat. She walked purposefully towards the elevator, her arms folded across her front, subtly, protectively.

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_What did you think? Good? Alright? Absolutely atrocious?_

_Let me know. Love kate x_


	3. JD

_Corporate Offense was soo not as good as Last man standing or Agent Afloat. I do have one question though, why did Ziva (after being sent back to cold hard emotionless mossad) come back and start hugging everybody? In the previous three seasons she didn't even ever hug Abby! In the first three episodes she has engaged Abby in two hugs AND Gibbs! On her return I was shocked enough on Last Man Standing but I put it off to stress and disorientation but on C.O.? Just no. Where is the kick ass hard as nails persona?_

_Anyway. Here is Chapter two. Hope you enjoy. Next update Saturday or possibly early Sunday I'm going to be busy nearly all day saturday so I shall try my darnedest to update. Love me xx_

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Chapter Two

It was three weeks after Ziva had denied Tony to buy her any alcohol, since then the two had managed to have several petty arguments and currently, were not speaking to each other. At her last scan Ziva had been informed her child was a healthy size for twelve weeks, she had been offered to know the baby's sex, she had declined the doctors offer, rather be surprised. She had received more sonogram photos which she had now securely fastened in a photo album.

When Ziva got to work at the beginning of her fourteenth week she found that she would not actually be going home that night, but in actual fact she would be heading off to L.A. with Tony and the director. This would not be a fun time. She was quite right, the entire journey there Tony was staring at her, attempting in vain to get eye contact with her. She subtly avoided it for the first hour, but it increasingly grew on her nerves until she turned around and snapped at him.

He looked decidedly hurt for a few seconds before forcing some anger back out at her, within the next half an hour the two had entered into a full blown pissing match, they didn't even notice when they left the plane and were still arguing in the baggage collection area. The director ended up refereeing them, and through several failed attempts at wedging a gap between them she ended up slapping the backs of their heads in true Gibbs fashion. The two ceased their argument and stared at the director who smiled and indicated to Tony to get her bags he did so placing them onto a trolley and wheeling it towards the exit. Jenny followed, with Ziva walking behind her.

The hotel was slightly awkward as they only had two rooms, originally it had been decided that Tony and Ziva would share a room, but seeing as though they had refused to talk to each other after the world's worst argument less then half an hour ago. So Ziva and Jenny ended up in a room together, and Tony had a room to himself. The rest of the day passed by in peaceful silence, Ziva managed to calm herself down by gently cleaning her gun sat cross legged on an armchair in the corner of the room.

It was the following day that caused the hassle, Ziva and Tony had as part of the mission been told to protect the director at a funeral, they had in actually fact completed this not so difficult task and they now headed back to the hotel. Perfectly silently, Ziva rode in the back, Jenny shotgun and Tony drove. All three had managed to calm down sufficiently to the point where nobody was fuming, and could almost make small talk last long enough to turn an awkward silence into an awkward noise. On returning to the hotel Jenny informed the two agents that she wanted some time alone to do paperwork and told them to amuse themselves.

Ziva opted to read in a shady corner of the poolside, while Tony decided it was more appropriate to get a chick magnet style car and go pick up a new girlfriend, go see some sights, get sunburn. He sped off without a backwards glance while Ziva stared blankly at the pages in her book. After about two hours or so, she felt the need to check on the director, she really should not have let her out of her sight and had been battling with herself for the past two hours whether she should check up on her or not.

When Ziva finally made it up to the hotel room she knock lightly on the door, making the excuse that she needed something, a hat. The sun was giving her a migraine. No answer, so Ziva gently pushed open the door. The room was perfectly empty, Ziva checked the En-suite and the balcony before calling Tony. No answer, of course, nobody believes something might have happened. Ziva tried the directors cell phone, only to find it laying on the bed. Now she was worried. Ziva redialled Tony and left a message on his phone before grabbing her own gear and running out to find a car.

Twenty minutes later Tony was stuck in traffic, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and saw he had two missed calls, one of which left a voicemail, he quickly listened to the message before swearing, he rang Ziva back and waited anxiously for her to answer, one, two, three rings.

"Hello? Tony? Did you get my message, you haven't seen her have you?"

"Yes I got your message and no I haven't seen her. Where are you? You haven't called Gibbs have you?"

"I'm … I have no idea, I'm just," he heard the screech of tires as she obviously just swerved quickly into the road, he grimaced, "looking for her, driving around. Oh and why would I call Gibbs? If I don't find her he will kill me."

"Kill us, I left first, and Ziva, don't drive so dangerously when your pregnant please?" It was the first time either of them had openly mentioned it in front of the other since Ziva had told him.

"Tony, I wouldn't tell you what to do," More screeching, "if you was pregnant, so please, don't tell me what to do."

The two spent the rest of the day trying to find out where Jenny had gotten too, they looked high and low for her and eventually Ziva stumbled across a clue, she had gone back to the hotel to search the room and found Jenny's phone. When she flipped it open she found she had an unread message so she opened it quickly and read it. It contained a location and a time for earlier that day, Ziva texted the information to Tony with the instruction that he should meet her there.

The two quickly had merged into investigative mode and scoured the meeting scene for clues, they found several and ended up going on a wild goose chase across the town. After a few hours and a few more slight investigative disagreements they ended up pulling up outside a small abandoned diner. The two pulled their guns and headed inside, dead people, lots of dead people. Ziva was the one who saw Jenny first, she was utterly shocked.

"Tony." Was the only thing she could say, "Tony, I found her." He slowly came out from behind the booths to her right and walked around, he crouched on the floor and pressed his finger to Jenny's neck. Nothing. He stood up and uttered the words she really didn't want to hear.

"Better call it in." She grimaced slightly, at the professionalism he was showing; she knew it was so hard for him to have to conceal his hurt. She had already managed to control her pain, leashed it in. She put it aside to be strong, as has been drummed into her from such a young age. She walked outside and breathed in the fresh air, it was then that the nausea hit her, she ran off across the road to throw up behind a bush. Whilst Tony briefed Gibbs on the current situation.

It was several hours later when Gibbs arrived on the scene he was obviously angry, disappointed and grieving. He took one look at Tony and Ziva however and realised they were also in a pretty bad way. Ziva was sat in the car, the door open and her legs stretched out in front of her, her head was leaning against the back of the seat and her eyes were closed. Tony was sat to her side, on the kerb, leaning against the back door. He watched as Gibbs approached, he stood up and allowed Gibbs to follow him inside where Tony told Gibbs all he knew on the situation.

When they arrived back in D.C. Tony and Ziva both felt like all the blame rested on their shoulders. When they walked into the bullpen every face turned to stare at them. Ziva glared straight back, forcing the owners of those eyes to turn away. Tony however looked at the floor, disgrace written over his face. Ziva had been the one to realise the director had gone, she had been the one to find the meeting place and she had been the one to find the body. Tony had merely tagged along, he felt he was no longer deserving of the badge hanging at his waist.

McGee nodded when he became aware of their presence, he would have stood up from his computer, but he was too busy working on how to find the missing link to their investigation. Gibbs had found that another person had been present at the shooting, which they had walked away probably unharmed. McGee was determined to find said person, partly because it was his job to do so, and he was slightly scared of his boss. Mainly it was because he had cared for Jenny, they all did, and she had been one of the team at times. McGee felt that they owed her for making their jobs in the past three years that bit better.

Tony and Ziva both went and sat behind their own desks, Tony forlorn looking while Ziva had a fire burning in her eyes that nobody else would have understood. Ziva and Jenny went back longer than anybody at NCIS but Ducky and Gibbs. Ziva had spent a year with her driving around Europe and she had saved her life in Cairo, they had saved each other's lives too many times to count. Ziva was hurt Jenny hadn't asked for her assistance and yet she was angry at herself for not figuring her old friend was in danger sooner.

As Gibbs walked into the bullpen Ziva was just about to let her frustration and grief get the better at her by sticking her knife through her computer monitor. The coffee cup he slammed in front of her distracted her from her thoughts and brought her back to DC. Away from the diner in that empty corner of L.A. Gibbs didn't look at her, he had merely put the cup on her desk before turning around to DiNozzo's and doing the same thing, and again at McGee's. He walked straight out of the bullpen; none of them even considered asking him anything.

Tony had watched Gibbs leave the bullpen and had now turned his attentions to the coffee cup perched on the end of his desk. He stared at it as if it were Gibbs, a slap to the back of the head and a few choice harsh words. Enough to get the message across, but short enough to not be a lecture, makes it quick, snappy and harsher. Tony almost flinched as he imagined the slap on the back of his head, he truly felt as though he was solely to blame for the death of their friend and Director. He killed the director of a federal agency. He let his head fall to the desk as this thought drifted into the forefront of his mind, the bang disturbing McGee and Ziva from their own thoughts.

They both looked at him, perturbed by his actions.

"It is not your fault Tony. You did not know she was in trouble, or looking for trouble. She told us a lie, we fell for it, simple as." Ziva said, trying to snap him out of his self pity.

"I know you blame yourself Ziva; I can see it in your eyes." He retorted, pain and anger evident in his eyes, the guilt was just too much for him, he couldn't cope and had to let it out somewhere.

"I do not blame myself, I- We are not discussing my feelings Tony, we are discussing yours." She quickly changed the subject not willing to embark on a journey to her past.

"Oh, my feelings are out in the open already, I feel guilty, McGee he just feels sad. What do you feel Ziva? If its not guilt, what is it? Happy?" He snapped at her, she looked as if he had just slapped her.

"Happy?" She uttered unbelieving he had just implied she wanted her friend dead. "I couldn't be further from happy right now Tony. I feel angry, ok? Angry because she didn't trust me, she wouldn't let me help. I'm angry because she let herself get into that situation, I'm angry because she's gone. Most of all I'm angry because she was like my sister and I'll never get to tell her that. Are you happy now DiNozzo?" She yelled, as she walked slowly towards him as he stood his hands spread across his desk leaning forward, glaring towards Ziva. As she got closer shouting at him he slowly realised what he had said I his anger.

Tony allowed Ziva to rant listening to one of her rare outburst when she accidentally let slip something about her life, when she had stopped yelling she was now so close to Tony that he had actually retreated backwards, removing his hands from the desk and taking a step back. By the time he had managed to process what Ziva had just told him she had already stalked off towards the elevator and climbed in. Tony and McGee looked on in shock, Tony more so than McGee, who was about to start a rant at Tony for asking if Ziva was happy but Ziva beat him too it.

The team half solved the case, while Gibbs finished it for them, he found the killer with the help of Mika Franks who shot her. They burnt down Jenny's house, making everybody believe she had been inside whilst it happened. On returning from the funeral the team slowly walked into the bullpen they looked around saddened that another friend they had known between these walls had died. Gibbs thought of Jenny, his wife, daughter and Kate. The people he had loved and lost. He stared around at the rest of his family praying that nothing would ever happen to them. He promised himself he would do everything he could to keep them safe.

Just as he was thinking this newly instated Director Vance walked out onto the balcony, he summoned Gibbs and his team up to his office, they complied half heartedly. They stood in a line facing the desk that once bore Jennifer Sheppard's name. Vance stood behind his new desk, obviously proud of his achievement. He looked between the four people in his office before settling his eyes on Ziva.

"Officer David, your liaison position has been terminated. You're going home." She looked visibly shocked, he didn't seem to notice instead he turned to McGee. "McGee, I'm transferring you to the Cyber Crime unit. You start on Monday." McGee also seemed visibly shocked and saddened although not as Ziva, who would not only be leaving her desk, like McGee but leaving the country. "DiNozzo." Vance started all eyes now fixed on him once more. "You are being transferred to Agent Afloat aboard the U.S. Ronald Reagan. You're plane leaves tomorrow night go and pack." He ordered.

"Agent Gibbs. Meet you're new team." He finished handing him three files containing the profiles of Agent Brent Langer, Agent Michelle Lee and Agent Daniel Keating. His new team.

* * *

_Poor Poor Jenny. Dead again. _

_Grief does horrid things to people wouldn't you agree. I'm not out to get Tony or make him out to be a bad guy. He just has little to no understanding or control over his emotions when he is under siege of them. I mean what would you do if you knocked a girl up, panicked, regretted the panicking, got your boss murdered and people were probing your emotions while you were trying and failing to keep them under wraps. I'd probably shoot somebody. Not that I'm a violent person. I do have a tendency to ramble. So, hope you enjoyed it, leave me a note please. I'll be sure to get back to you. Much love kate xx_


	4. Returning

_Neeeext installment. Hope you enjoy it. _

* * *

Chapter Three

It was the middle of August 2007 the last time the entire team had been together. The first few weeks of them being separated was governed mainly by secret meetings held by Gibbs in Autopsy. Black lung had been kicked out of their meetings as Gibbs felt he may tell Agent Lee what they were discussing and she was highly likely to spread the word. So, Gibbs, Ducky and Abby would be holed up there discussing tactical plans on how to resurrect Gibbs old team. McGee sometimes popped in for them as well, mainly because he had less work to do in Cyber crimes, it was typically nine to five and he often spent a few hours on an evening or in a morning in Abby's lab.

McGee was the easiest person to get reinstated. Mainly because Gibbs had control over McGee still, them both being on the same continent helped. McGee under Gibbs' strict orders was performing happily well below his standard, he was bordering on average. He kept it at a standard enough to keep his job, but the new Director would get nothing 'special' from him. McGee actually spent most of his time playing solitaire, or Tetris on his high tech computer. He found it highly amusing that those wonderful tax dollars he gave to the government to buy this equipment was being used to try to beat a Tetris world record. Gibbs was actually quite amazed when he realised what McGee did most of the day, and reminded himself to try to keep him separated from DiNozzo in the future and to regularly look over his shoulder when he was busy staring at his computer.

Gibbs' opportunity came to persuade the director to have him return McGee in the middle of September when Agent Keating got some news about his family out in Arizona and took holiday leave. Gibbs had Vance pull McGee as a substitute field agent whilst they were an agent down. McGee immediately pulled his socks up and returned to his normal working speed, glad to be able to work at his desk, at his speed. He spent two weeks here before they got any news of Keating. This just happened to be the best news McGee had ever heard, Keating's sister had given birth to triplets which is why he left, but the news came when he was due to return. He wouldn't be, he had bumped into his old high school girlfriend and they had fallen in love, she was leaving for England next week and he was going with her. Basically, he quit.

Director Vance almost hit the roof when he heard this news, he immediately suspected Gibbs had paid Keating off or something, and spent nearly half an hour screaming at Gibbs who remained perfectly calm throughout this. Although it was quite possible he just didn't have a clue what was happening. When Vance had finished yelling however he had turned to McGee and slammed a piece of paper on his desk. McGee tentatively picked it up wondering if it was him being fired or transferred to some far away corner of America. No, it wasn't it clearly stated he had his old position back, he was officially now a member of Gibbs team again. McGee grinned from ear to ear and looked up at Gibbs who was watching Vance as he stormed back up to his office with a slightly amused expression on his face.

"Boss. I'm officially back on your team!" He waved the paper lightly above his head, grinning, Gibbs looked at him bemused before ordering his thoughts and putting two and two together. He nodded his head and told him he should go and let Abby know, in person. McGee nodded enthusiastically and ran off towards the elevator. He jabbed at the down button and the elevator arrived soon enough. He leapt in and hit 'Lab' or the basement. He arrived in a few minutes and he saw something blurry running towards him as he stepped into the lab. He grabbed the doorframe just in time as Abby lunged at him. She flung her arms around his neck and buried her face in the crook of his neck. When he regained his balance he wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her a few inches off the floor so he could walk into her lab. Once inside they let go of each other and Abby grinned before starting to launch into a ramble. McGee cut her off.

"I'm officially back on Gibbs' team, Abs." He held the paper up in front of her face allowing her to read it. She quickly scanned it before once again flinging her arms around his neck. "Keating flew off to England, quit his job."

"Did Gibbs make him do it?" Abby asked innocently, walking towards her computer grinning happily.

"No, at least I don't think so, Vance was yelling at him for it though, apparently Keating bumped into an ex and is going with her."

"Oh? How sweet."

"Abby? You had something to do with it didn't you?"

"How? I thought he left because his sister was having triplets and her husband was away. I didn't even know he had a sister until then, I can't work that quickly!" She grinned.

"So, she got a promotion at work, the one she was after, I'm sure if either you or Gibbs referred her they would have sent her anywhere. England even."

"I'm glad you're back Timmy." She walked up to him and pecked him lightly on the cheek before returning to her work. He stood there innocently smiling at what his friends would do for him.

Timothy McGee slowly headed back up to the bullpen full of a renewed hope that in the next few weeks Gibbs could easily persuade Vance to give back the other two members of their team. McGee thought that once he let Gibbs have McGee back it would only take a few weeks maybe until Tony arrived and a few days after that they should have Ziva back. This thought remained running around his head during each of their meetings in autopsy. It spiralled around whenever he saw Brent Langer sitting in Tony's chair, or whenever he caught sight of Michelle Lee typing away serenely at her computer. A week later and the thought was still churning around in his mind, another week and it was still there, another week, another and another. It was five weeks after McGee had been reinstated and they were still no closer to being able to even say DiNozzo or David out loud without being scowled upon, screamed at or avoided like the plague.

It was the beginning of the second week in November when any of them heard anything from Tony. Sometime son the Sunday night Vance had received a message informing him that Agent DiNozzo had come down ill and the medics believed it best he get off the ship. Vance had quietly informed them he was most likely faking and should be given some morphine or similar and confined to his quarters for a few days. The medics had highly disagreed saying he had begun to cough up droplets of blood, and this was highly unusual for a cold. The medics quickly packed him off on an air rescue helicopter and he was zoomed off back onto dry land. He was transferred to Bethesda much to Director Vance's annoyance.

That Monday as soon as Gibbs had entered the building Vance swooped down on him like a vulture, he marched Gibbs up to his office and began a new shouting match, this time Gibbs had absolutely no idea what Vance was talking about, there was no playing dumb like last time. The second Vance said DiNozzo Bethesda Gibbs flew out of the room, leaving Vance's doors swinging on their hinges and his temper steadily increasing. Gibbs marched out past McGee grabbing him by the arm and yanking him up he stormed with him into the back elevator and quickly pressed the button for Abby's lab, he carefully let go of McGee's arm. He smiled apologetically at him as they arrived at Abby's lab Gibbs didn't get out.

"Abby, Elevator now!" He yelled, Abby instantly appeared at the door, her white lab coat flapping around behind her. She stood in the elevator as if she did this all the time and allowed Gibbs to press the button for Autopsy. He did the same thing at Autopsy, shouting for Ducky when the elevator doors opened. Ducky proceeded in the same way as Abby did. McGee growing slightly more confused, he gently reached out and grasped Abby's hand, who squeezed his back, grasping it tightly. The next stop for the elevator was actually the car park, Gibbs strode out followed swiftly by Ducky, then Abby who was dragging McGee behind her. All four climbed into the car as Gibbs unlocked it, Ducky riding shotgun, Abby and McGee riding in the back, Gibbs driving. Gibbs speeding.

The four of them arrived slightly worse for wear ten minutes later outside of Bethesda. McGee looked even more perplexed, Abby worried and Ducky saddened. Gibbs led the way in, marching directly for the front desk. He held up his badge, and indicated who he and his fellows were before asking to see a one Anthony DiNozzo. Abby gasped, and McGee stuttered slightly, Gibbs having only just said the name of the person they were heading out to see. McGee felt Abby's grip on his hand tighten dramatically. He pried his hand away and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, she clutched onto his chest, her face buried in his chest. The nurse looked at the four of them oddly before giving them a room number and floor.

Gibbs swept off towards the elevator, Ducky following suit, McGee and Abby walking behind swiftly. When they reached Tony's floor they quickly headed around the corner and headed down the left into a quiet corridor. Gibbs found the door in minutes he didn't even bother to knock but walked straight in and scanned the room. Tony was propped up in the bed, looking slightly paler than normal but otherwise he seemed to be quite healthy. He raised an eyebrow at Gibbs, a slight smirk crossed his face before he returned his attention to the television he had been watching. He stared at it for a few seconds, changed channel and then he spoke up.

"Took you long enough, I've been here hours. Thought you'd have already been to see me, Boss. I'm hurt." He said in mock. His cough was hoarse and croaky. He coughed a bit which was closely followed by a sneeze. He scoffed slightly, "I get a cold and I get sent to Bethesda. Sucks." He sneezed again and then had to endure Abby pouncing on him screaming that she was glad he isn't dying. McGee was laid flat out on the floor having tried and failed to restrain Abby from leaping on Tony, which she was trying to do since she entered the room.

"Tony, are you sure you're ok? I mean they wouldn't ship you out if you weren't really sick." She queried poking and prodding at him. He laughed a bit before explaining what had happened.

"It was quite funny really, the medics over there knew I had the pneumonic plague and so when I went to see them saying I had a cold and wanted something for it they started doing all these tests. I sneezed during their little experiments and bit the side of my mouth. Next time I coughed a load of blood came up. The panicked a bit and before I could explain it I was half way back to D.C. So I sat back and let them panic a bit more." He reeled off, happy to be back on land.

The team laughed all obviously greatly relieved he was perfectly fine and back in D.C. They spent the next half an hour telling each other the main things that had happened, Tony wanted to know everything about Gibbs' new team and Abby was only happy to oblige, with every detail down to a scar Langer has on his fingertip from picking up a knife the wrong way around. Gibbs, Ducky and McGee left after a while leaving Tony and Abby to finish talking, mainly because Abby refused to leave.

When they got back to NCIS, while McGee headed to his desk Gibbs walked straight past the bullpen and up the stairs to the Directors office. He walked straight in allowing the door to bang against the wall, increasing the indentation that was growing in size since Vance had been promoted to Director.

"You will have to pay to have that wall fixed you know Gibbs?"

"You didn't tell me that DiNozzo was sick. He could have died. All because you thought it a good idea to send him off into the middle of the freaking sea when he's had the pneumonic plague. Are you out of your mind, or are you trying to kill off all the decent NCIS agents?"

"I was trying to allow him time to heal away from here, he blames himself-"

"That's bull and you know it. I don't know why you split up my team but damned if I'm letting you send DiNozzo back to that god-damned boat. I want him back on my team." Gibbs and Vance glared at each other.

"So be it. Although you may need a new desk, I believe all of yours are full."

"I'll find him a spot." Gibbs merely said before walking more calmly out, shutting the door behind himself with a lot more control than how he entered.

When Gibbs got down into the bullpen he gave only two instructions, one to Michelle Lee, he gave this one first. He gave the second to Agent Langer, who apart from not being DiNozzo was a damn good agent.

"Lee, move that desk there. Langer I want you in Lee's desk." He quickly said before walking out to go and visit Abby or possibly Ducky. Langer and Lee just stared at each other before quietly packing up their things and swapping desks. Neither knowing why Gibbs wanted Langer's desk emptied. McGee smiled happily to himself as he watched his two team members moving around.


	5. David Take Two

**_Updated this, Darren is NOT Ziva's cousin he is her oldest brother and if I write cousin anywhere where it should say brother yell at me and I'll go change it! I just changed it in this chapter. _**

_If you want a family tree it may help lol. Basically, Darren is nine years Ziva's senior he has a 15/16 year old daughter whose mother died when she was very young. Darren and Ziva used to be quite close and understand each other perfectly they are incredibly similar personality wise and had similar experiences throughtout their lives both being treated in the same manner by their father while Tali was treated with great care and Ari was treated with more care than them. (May not be really acurate that but I don't care )_

* * *

_Crapiest weekened ever. Spent all Sat in Leeds, witha cold, wonderful. Spent most of Sunday coughing up my intestines. Sucks. I didn't even turn my computer on. That is a sign of illness for me. Both my mother and best friend were actually seriously shocked when I said I hadnt been online at all in over 36 hours. So was I actually lol. _

_Anyway, part 004. Its Baby-time. whoot. _

* * *

Chapter Four

Tony had long since settled back into his position at NCIS headquarters in D.C. He had continued to call McGee probie, and was constantly trying to get one over on Langer, who was rather upset he had been demoted from senior field agent, to a field agent, DiNozzo having returned to his previous role as Gibbs second. Abby was the happiest, it was easy to say, Langer and Lee had been surprised at how pleasant, and well, loving she was towards McGee and DiNozzo and not to them. Lee was used to it having worked on the team before, she knew Abby well enough to know that she needed her people around her and would not be happy at all if they were not there.

Langer was suffering the brunt of most of the original team's bad vibes. Tony constantly kept glancing at him and glaring at him. McGee would often cut him off mid sentence, if Langer knew McGee well enough he would have known this was not a personal thing. At least it didn't start out that way, but Langer interpreted it as such as gave McGee an equally hard time. This was the main reason that Abby and Ducky both treated Langer with as little respect as they dared. Gibbs was slowly getting fed up of the inter-team wars going on under his nose. He had done his best to keep them apart.

He had had enough now though, having found that Tony had super glued the keys on Langer's keyboard together, who now could do no work. This was met with Langer removing Tony's spare clothes and spilling coffee on him. Both highly childish acts had not gone unpunished by Gibbs, who after slapping both on the back of the head as hard as he could and sending each of them to different parts of the building to work he stormed up to see the director.

"I need you to get rid of Langer, give him his old team, I don't care. Before long he or DiNozzo are going to kill each other. I don't care how you do it, but I want Langer away from DiNozzo, I'll train another probie but I want Langer gone." Gibbs blurted out the second he was in the door. Vance just raised his eyebrows.

"Why don't I just give DiNozzo a new team?"

"Because, McGee will kill Langer if you do that. The problem is Langer not DiNozzo. Langer needs his own team; he had his own team at the FBI. He isn't suited for taking orders, he'd be better off handing them out." Vance raised his eyebrows.

"I will not be able to get Officer David back. You know that don't you Gibbs?"

"You could try, Vance, swallow your god damned pride and pick up the telephone."

"I did, Agent Gibbs. I contacted her father a few days ago, I expected this to happen It took you longer than I expected. However, Director David refused to disclose any information on Officer David, other than she could not return to NCIS." Vance gazed at Gibbs who was shocked that Vance had tried to rectify his mistakes. Perhaps he wasn't such a bad director after all, shame he made the mistake to begin with.

Officer David walked down a street in Tel Aviv. The sun beat down on her bare neck. She was wearing a typical pair of cargo pants, black boots and a dark brown spaghetti strapped vest top. She turned a corner and the sun beat down even harder, she leaned forward over the pram she was pushing and pulled the protective visor over further adjusting the shade covering the pram. A month old baby shuffled around inside as his mother leaned over him. Ziva allowed her arm to dangle inside the pram, stroking his cheek easing him into a quiet sleep.

She walked for a few more feet until she arrived back at her house, or rather the house her father had forced her to move into. It was one of the quietest streets in Tel Aviv. It was on the outskirts of the town, and so people had larger housing and lived further away from each other. It was rarely attacked by terrorists because unless one person was being targeted then it didn't create as much of an impact as blowing up a city centre street.

Ziva unlocked the door and pushed the pram inside, she closed the door behind her and bolted it. She pushed the pram further into the hallway and stood, watching her son sleep. After a few minutes she gently dipped her arms into the pram and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him up out of the pram and allowing him to snuggle up in her arms. She slowly carried him upstairs to let him sleep in his cot.

Later on that evening her father paid her a visit, he had tried to pick the lock and failed, the bolt keeping him on the outside of the door. As he tried to push the door open he heard Ziva moving around on the other side. Suddenly the door flew open and he had a gun pointed to his head. He straightened up and pointedly told Ziva if she gave him a key he would have no need to pick the lock. Ziva scoffed and stepped backwards allowing him access to her house, she did not however lower her gun, an act which did not go unnoticed by her father.

"Do you still think I am a threat to you Ziva?" He asked, mock amusement in his voice. Ziva merely raised an eyebrow.

"Perhaps, what do you want?"

"To tell you, that yesterday, your precious NCIS Director called for you."

"Director Vance means nothing to me. What do you mean he called for me?"

"He wished to know of your whereabouts and whether you would be able to return to you're liaison position on Agent Gibbs' team."

"Really?" Ziva lowered her gun, although she didn't re-holster it. "Why did he change his mind? What did you tell him?"

"Yes, I believe he also allowed the reinstating of Agent DiNozzo and McGee. I told him I could give him no information as to your whereabouts, and you could not return to work at NCIS." Ziva nodded absent mindedly, not really listening to what her father was saying. "He will not call again. I made it clear Mossad wants nothing more to do with NCIS."f

Her father had said his piece and so now he took his leave, Ziva still standing in the hallway as she heard the door snap shut. She walked over and bolted it. She walked over to the sofa in her lounge, only now putting her gun back in its holster. She collapsed into the comfort of her sofa, allowing the cushions to envelop her as she was overcome with memories and regrets.

She walked over to her bookshelf and pulled out a heavy brown leather book. She walked back to her sofa and sat down placing the book in her lap. She untied the knot on the side of the book allowing the think red ribbon to hang loosely by the side. She flipped open the front cover, one of the pieces of ribbon trailing along in the air before settling next to the cover. Ziva stared at the first picture in the book. It was an old picture.

Tali, Ari, Darren, Hannah and Ziva were all stood in front of a tree in a large garden or park. Ziva had her arm around Tali's shoulders while Ari stood on Tali's other side. Darren Ziva's eldest brother had his arms around Hannah his long time girlfriend. Ziva was only fifteen in this picture. Her and Darren the only two still living she thought harshly. She flipped the page to reveal another picture.

This one was of Tali. It was taken at her sixteenth birthday party. She had been drinking more than she should have and had ended up laying on the table and falling asleep. Ziva had snuck up to her and taken several photo's for what she and Tali had termed 'Blackmail material.' Ziva smiled as she remembered all the fun she had had with her baby sister. She turned another page and saw a smile she had not seen in a long time.

It was a picture of the sibling she could have yet had not seen in a long time. They had grown up together; although he was nine years older than Ziva they had played together everyday. He was holding a two year old little girl, his daughter Alyssa. Her mother Hannah had been killed in a terrorist attack at a small café in the centre of Tel Aviv. Darren had been left to raise 'Lissy by himself. In the photograph he is kissing her head as she was playfully giggling and wriggling against him. Ziva missed her brother dearly. He had moved to America, then to France and finally settled in England two years ago.

She flipped a few pages this time, arriving at the back of the book, where she had stuck a few more recent photos. The first were pictures of the NCIS team. Abby, Tim, Tony and herself in Abby's lab. Abby was having a nostalgic moment and had forced them all into having their pictures taken. The one on the next page was a photo of herself and the director. Another Abby snap. The last was a photo of the team, Gibbs, Tony, Tim, Ducky, Palmer, Abby, Jenny and Ziva. Ziva allowed her finger to run over Jenny, who was way too close to Gibbs for them being just friends.

The last photo was much more recent. It was a picture of her newborn son. She had scribbled his name above the photograph, Benjamin Chaim David. She smiled at the photo, at least she had one good thing in her life. She ran her finger over this picture only for this to be met with the screams of a hungry baby. She closed the book and placed it onto her coffee table before quickly heading upstairs to go and see her son.

A thought ran through her head. "Perhaps I will go and find Darren and Lissy."

* * *

_I wish I had a giant book of my life. We just have random photos of no specificness. My kids are going to have very well crafted baby books with pictures at birth, and like every 6 months plus special occasions. Then they can look at them when they are older and just see how they grew up. Not like me its like hey look I'm somewhere between 0 and 5 in that photo. _

_Seriously though my parents have like half an album of photos of me as a baby and like two albums of my brother, and they wonder why I have issues?_

_Favouritism is never nice. _

_Anyway, I totally just had a rant there, ugh lol. Hope you enjoyed it. Much love, kate xx_


	6. Bye Bye Rule Twelve

_McAbby for you hope you enjoy it as a little change from the norm. xx_

_P.S. Heartland was just the cutest. The bit at the end with Shannon and the rules was just so sweet. She was a very pretty girl. Damn her.  
Wasn't Gibbs just the gawkiest teen ever? I loved the bit with his yellow (why yellow?) car when he was like a boy racer speeding around town. If your not getting, I loved this episode totally fun. Though I lost the actually bit about who was in hosiptal or dead? Who he was and who the kid was and oh nevermind. It was awesome anyway._

_P.P.S I just bought some awesome new shoes. So awesome I bought them in grey and in black. I never buy shoes. Not ones like this so I'm like wow. Anyway on with the show._

* * *

Chapter Five

It was closing in on October and there was a certain tension in the air. Vance had long since agreed with Gibbs' demands and sent Langer packing. Agent Lee had moved back into the desk she had been in previously, and the team were working successfully. All except McGee, who seemed to be distracted by something, he was jumpy, twitchy and extremely self conscious. It had all gotten so much for Gibbs he had literally dragged McGee to the elevator by his ear. DiNozzo and Lee watched in awe as Gibbs forced them both into the elevator, the second the doors closed DiNozzo ran to the doors, placing his ear against the cold metal.

"What the blazes is going on McGee?" Gibbs demanded the second he flicked the emergency switch. McGee stared down at his hands, twisting them around.

"I-Um, well I. Hmm … I was, I am."

"Spit it out McGee!" Gibbs was neither amused not patient at his agent's stuttering. He decided to give him a little assistance. "Has this got anything to do with Abby? Because you two really suck at trying to keep secrets."

McGee looked up at his boss with a mixture of fear, shock and awe in his eyes. Gibbs knew, of course Gibbs knew, he knew everything. McGee continued to stare at his boss wondering if he was going to gut him for sleeping with the favourite. Gibbs stared pointedly at McGee who slowly placed his hand into his pocket and pulled something out. It took Gibbs a moment to figure out what he was doing, when he did he looked closely at the item clutched fiercely in McGee's hand.

"I, I was going to give it to her on Halloween." He managed to get out, before carefully opening the box to show Gibbs. Inside was the most beautiful black diamond princess cut ring Gibbs had seen, of course he hadn't seen many princess cut black diamond engagement rings. This had a certain flare to it, the silver band set it off beautifully. Gibbs looked at the ring and then at his agent who was trembling a bit, wondering what his boss would say.

"What do you mean you was going to give it to her?" He quizzed shocking the agent more than a slap to the back of the head.

"We, erm, had a fight. She said she didn't ever want to get married, and I asked her why and she just said because she didn't and so I tried to get her to explain it to me, but she just got mad. Now she wont talk to me."

This time Gibbs did give McGee a slap to the back of the head, it wasn't very hard but it was enough to let the agent know what he had to do. He had to go and talk to Abby. At this point Gibbs flicked the switch and the elevator sprung to life. He pressed the button for the basement, Abby's lab. When they arrived he pushed McGee out of the elevator and quickly pressed the button for the bullpen. Leaving McGee to talk to his girlfriend.

"Abby?" McGee tentatively asked, wondering if she would kill him if he asked more about the marriage thing. He tried again, a bit louder this time. "Abby?" She suddenly appeared in the doorway to her office. She had very little make-up on which shocked McGee. "I'm sorry Abby, for asking you so much about why you didn't ever want to get married."

"Oh Timmy, I'm not really mad at you, I'm sorry too I shouldn't have snapped at you." She ran at him as he held his arms out and she flung herself into them. McGee barely flinched used to her over enthusiastic hugging. He wrapped his arms around her as she buried her face in his shoulder.

"I love you so much Abby."

"I love you too Timmy. I realised when you left yesterday, when I threw you out, which I'm really sorry about. I realised something, I realised I could get married if it was too the right person. I never thought I'd found that person until I met you Timmy. I love you so much and I would get married, but only if it's to you."

Her words caused McGee to relax against her, not realising the amount of tension he had been under wondering whether or not to ask her to marry him anyway. Now he knew, and operation Marriage began to play out in his head as he held on to his future fiancée.

October 31.

It was the big day for McGee. He had planned, prepared and organised the perfect event to ask Abby to be his wife. It was Halloween and he knew Abby normally went out on Halloween but he persuaded her to stay in with him. Telling her he had a surprise. He had a surprise alright. He had bribed and begged and eventually paid a lot of money to have his landlord allow him access to the roof for one night only.

He had spent the entire day cleaning as much of the roof as possible, although he was in a modern building so the roof was in pretty good nick. He had bought several meters of black fabric, many meters in fact. Enough to cover quite a large area of roof. He laid the fabric out near the entrance to the roof and smoothed it out. He then placed a table and two chairs on the far side of the fabric.

He added a black tablecloth and red seat cushions to the table and chairs. The next thing to be added was another table, he covered this with a piece of red cloth, and he placed his CD player on the top. He added a pile of CD's behind it and then sprinkled the rest of the table with black and red rose petals. On the other end of the long rose covered table he placed a large bouquet of black roses.

He then turned his attention to the lighting. He had brought with him, as well as several bags of rose petals several bags of varying candles. He placed three candles onto the small dinning table, and then he placed lots of smaller candles on to the longer table. He spread the rest of the candles around the rooftop, along the roof edge and around the door way. He smiled at himself when he had finished the decorating. He walked back out off the roof and locked the door before running downstairs to go and prepare a meal for Abby. Her favourite, Mexican.

By eight o clock everything was perfect, It was getting dark and so Tim McGee had gone along and lit all the candles. He stood back and found it was surprisingly light. He then ran out to go and pick Abby up. He arrived twenty minutes later, escorting Abby up the stairs, following the trail of rose petals. Abby was overwhelmed already and she had only seen Tim, looking extremely dapper in an incredibly smart suit, and the rose petal lined stairwell.

Abby screamed in excitement when she saw the rooftop, she hugged Tim and was speechless when she took a proper look. Tim then led her over to the small table and pulled her chair out for her. She sat down, her black dress flowing over the sides of the chair. She beamed at him as he poured her a glass of champagne. She took it and clinked it against his once he had poured his own; she sipped it beaming the entire time. Tim bowed to her as a mock waiter before producing a starter off the long table, now covered in candle fed food warmers and several silver dishes full of food.

The two happily ate their way through Tim's home cooked three course Mexican inspired menu. Abby looked the happiest she had ever been and was extremely glad she was here instead of at an underground Halloween inspired rave. After the two had finished their meal they talked for nearly an hour, they talked about everything and anything and as the conversation started to dry up a bit Tim asked Abby if she wanted to dance. He walked over to the CD player and put a CD in and hit play. A slow beautifully written song started to come on and Tim took Abby's hand and led her away from the table.

He took her left hand in his right and placed his own left hand at her waist pulling her in closer to him. She wrapped her right hand around his neck as their clasped hands came to rest against Tim's chest. Abby leaned her head down onto Tim's shoulder and allowed him to slowly spin her around on the spot. They swayed to softly playing music for twenty minutes before Tim parted them. He let go of Abby and walked over to the long table, leaving Abby in the middle of the rooftop. He pulled the bouquet of roses off the table and walked back over to her.

He handed them to her gently, and as she took them off him she brought them up to her face, sniffing them gently, they smelt lovely. When she looked back at Tim she noticed he was on the floor. Or more correctly, he was kneeling. He was on one knee and he had taken Abby's hand in his, he kissed it softly. He then stared up into Abby's overjoyed face, before pulling a small box from his pocket, he flipped it open revealing the stunning black diamond engagement he had show to Gibbs a few weeks ago.

"Miss Abigail Scuito, would you do me the incredible honour of being my wife?" He asked.

"Ooh, oh Timmy, of course I will, Yes, I love you so much, Yes!" Abby replied as Tim slipped the ring onto her finger. She pulled him up and kissed him as passionately as she could, pouring out each of their emotions into that one kiss. Tim took her hand and led her off the building and down to his apartment.

November First

Abby and Tim McGee arrived at work at the same time, both were beaming ecstatically. McGee tok Abby's hand as they walked into the building, he escorted Abby into her lab and kissed her deeply before he left. The same smirk plastered across their faces. When McGee entered the bullpen Tony was particularly interested in what had caused McGee to be so happy all of a sudden. He spent the next two hours trying to get it out of him but to no avail.

Gibbs eventually came down from MTAC took one look at McGee's beaming face and left to go and visit Abby. He arrived back again in ten minutes to slap McGee on the back of the head, muttering the threat that if he hurt Abby he would have himself to answer to. McGee's grin faltered for a millisecond but solemnly swore he would rather cut out his heart then hurt Abby. Tony was slightly put off by this comment and almost missed the part where McGee seemed to be dating Abby.

"You're dating Abby, Mcgoogly?" he said in shock. "You actually got laid?"

"No, DiNozzo, he is engaged to Abby. Some investigator you are." Gibbs announced loudly before heading out again for coffee. Tony continued to berate McGee about his apparent secret relationship with the 'mistress of the dark'. The two eventually went down to Abby's lab to go and see the proof that McGee had actually proposed. Abby flying towards her new fiancé as soon as she saw him enter the room. Tony standing at the sidelines in absolute shock.

"I thought you never wanted to get married Abby?"

"Timmy is special though, I love him more than anything, he is the only person I would ever consider marrying. I trust him." She whispered the last line, more to the man wrapped in her arms than to Tony. McGee gently kissed Abby showing her he felt exactly the same.


	7. Timmy Finds A Friend

_Thanks to all my reviewers. Much love to you. Back on track again. Back to Ziva. Now I know a lot of you have been wondering when she comes back. Well, you'll have to continue wondering won't you? Lol. _

_Let me know what you're loving/hating etc. I do love to get feedback and help improve my writing skills. Although I'm fully aware I may be waffling sometimes if you wish to point at some certain points were I take waffle to a whole new level do so. So, rip my writing to shreds analyse it and help me get better! _

_Much love, Kate. xx_

* * *

Chapter Six

She had made her mind up at the beginning of October, Ben was eight months old and she was fed up of living in Tel Aviv. She had already had a hectic few months, she had met a person she had believed was long dead and had almost become long dead herself. She didn't want to have to lose her son, or to have her son lose her. So she finally made the decision to go and find her cousin.

Ziva's father was not happy with her decision to leave but he reluctantly accepted she would be doing this with or without his permission. To make amends for trying to refuse her to leave her father found the address of Darren and organised to have somebody from the Israeli embassy in London to pick her up. She accepted his help gratefully and before she had even thought about it much more, she was sat on a plane with her eight month old son sat on her knee.

Within a few hours she was riding next to a tall balding Israeli man obviously not happy about having to chauffeur a woman and her child around the country. Within a few hours however, Ziva and Ben were dropped off outside a detached house, a man was waiting outside and as soon as he saw Ziva get out of the car he ran towards her and embraced her in a hug.

"It has been too long Ziva, I'm so sorry I haven't been in touch." Ziva merely returned the hug before leaning over to unfasten Benjamin from his car seat. Darren seemed surprised she had a child but before he had time to process this Ziva handed Ben to Darren while she herself pulled several bags out from the back seat along with Ben's car seat. She followed Darren inside his house and dumped the bags in the hallway before returning to collect what was left of them, the Israeli man having brought several of Ziva's bags in himself.

Darren helped Ziva to erect a cot in the guest bedroom in his house so that Ben could at least get some sleep. Lissy, Darren's daughter was currently playing with Ben in the lounge room downstairs whilst Darren helped Ziva to move in. That evening Lissy, Ziva and Darren ate together in their cosy dinning room while Ziva rattled off an incredibly shortened version of the last four years of her life. She told Darren everything, and in return he told her everything that had happened to him and why he had left. When Lissy was sent to bed Darren and Ziva stayed up late discussing their future.

The next three months passed by quickly for Ziva, she loved being able to take Ben out without fearing he would get blown up whenever she left the safety of indoors. Ben had stood up shortly after arriving in England, and had taken his first few tentative steps a few weeks ago, Ziva had been thrilled at this. The weather was getting colder and colder as it turned into December and Ziva had restricted Ben's access to the outdoors. She constantly kept him wrapped up and spent most of her time playing games with him in either the lounge or her bedroom.

Lissy had eventually been let off school for the Christmas holidays and her, Ziva and Ben had taken to spending hours at a time watching DVDs and playing games. Darren had work to be doing and although Ziva had suggested she got a job Darren said he would prefer that she would stay at their home and watch over her son and his daughter. "Cheaper than a babysitter right?" He had said and so it had been decided that while Darren worked Ziva would spend her time with the children. After a while though, the weather and the lack of danger was starting to get to her, and so she started a conversation with Darren he had long foreseen.

"I think I might move to America. Its way too cold here and I think I could get a job at the Embassy at Washington D.C."

"You thought much about this?"

"I guess so, I'm not sure, I loved it in America. I was there for four years and it really felt like home, I'd love to have that again, Tel Aviv is no longer a home to me." Darren nodded.

"We'll come with you. I'm not losing contact again Zee. You're the little sister I never wanted, I won't have you and my only nephew disappearing off to America without me!"

This shocked Ziva as she had not been expecting Darren to go with her or even suggest the idea to her. She looked him straight in the eye and all she saw was honesty and dedication. She smiled at him.

"Does Alyssa want to go back to America? I assume she remembers it. It was six years since she was there."

Darren nodded, "She is always saying how she wants to go back to America, says its too cold here. So yes, she would jump at the chance." He smiled as did Ziva, and so the planning began. They told Lissy later on that night and she leapt for joy, hugging and kissing both Ziva and Darren.

"How did you raise such a … emotional child?" Ziva asked as the two walked up the stairs to bed after setting out to plan their move. Darren just laughed and shrugged.

Less than a month later Ziva and Darren were carrying numerous bags and boxes into a new much larger house in Washington D.C. compared to Darren's house in England. Lissy was sat on the grass outside playing with Ben who had mastered the ability to toddle around for at least five or six steps at a time. Lissy had taken it upon herself to teach him how to run. The fifteen year old and eleven month old spent nearly three hours wandering around their new garden before Ziva called them both inside the house when they had finished transferring all of the boxes between the van and the house.

Lissy picked Ben up and ran inside; when Ben saw Ziva he stuck his arms out and yelled, "Mama!" Lissy had been also attempting at getting him to say Alyssa or Lissy but the most she had gotten was 'Is-is' much to her disappointment. Ziva took Ben off of Alyssa and smiled at her. Ben yelled, "Issa!" and Lissy yelled in joy.

"He said my name, say it again Ben, Al-is-sa." She spelt out for him and Ben replied with a quick

"A–Issa!" Alyssa beamed glad he had almost mastered her name. The three of them walked through into the lounge room. Boxes littered most rooms and as they walked in Darren pulled a plastic sheet off his sofa with a flourish.

"Aah, my lovely ladies, and Ben of course. Take a seat!" He pointed to the sofa and Lissy immediately collapsed on to it.

"Long haul flight and then we had to move into a new house. Couldn't we have just stayed at the Embassy or something? This could have been done tomorrow." She yawned and shuffled up on the sofa allowing Ziva and Darren to sit on either side of her.

"All you did is run around the garden, it is your own fault if you are tired." Ziva said, as she stifled a yawn herself, as Ben tugged on a lock of her hair. He rested his head on her shoulder and closed his eyes. "I am going to go and set Ben's cot up so he may go to sleep." Ziva said before wandering into the hall and up the stairs into the room designated as hers. She laid Ben on her bed while she rummaged in the largest box and began to assemble his cot.

An hour later she had successfully pieced together the bed and placed Ben inside it allowing him to go to sleep in peace. It was only seven o clock but all of the occupants of the house were incredibly tired. When she got back downstairs she smelt the sounds of Chinese wafting through from the kitchen. When she entered she saw Darren emptying containers of rice and chow Mein onto plates. Lissy was sat at the breakfast table eating straight out of a carton.

"In England most of the Chinese places serve you in these rubbish plastic pots. These are far cooler. I mean I can eat out of these, you can't eat out of the English variant. Awesome!" Lissy mumbled her mouth full of sweet and sour chicken. The three ate in relative silence. Before heading up to their rooms to fall asleep.

The following day Lissy was once more recruit to babysit Ben as Darren and Ziva unpacked most of the things, they carried the suitcases full of clothes into each of the bedrooms, the furniture had already been placed in the correct rooms and the only things left to unpack where the small items. Lissy and Ben were given the task of putting cushions, pillows and duvets on all the chairs, sofas and beds. They did this with gusto as Ben enjoyed being able to throw cushions around while Lissy constantly kept jumping on him and wrestling with him on the beds and duvets.

Ziva and Darren slowly made their way through each room unpacking the boxes stacked up in the corners and cleaning, tidying and organising. By lunch time most of the downstairs had been unpacked and sorted out. The afternoon was spent sorting out the bathrooms and bedrooms. The evening Ziva left to go and buy supplies to fill the kitchen cupboards and the bathrooms. Finally after two incredibly hectic days the house was perfectly organised and the three oldest occupants collapsed onto the sofa, Ben playing on the floor.

"I think that was the fastest move in ever." Lissy joked. The three laughed together happy to be settled back in America.

Over the next few months the three of them grew even more settled into their new home. Alyssa was signed up to the local high school and Darren got a job at a marketing company, similar to what he had previously done in England. While Ziva had managed to get herself a job working at the Embassy, she was now in constant contact with Mossad and the Israeli government allowing her to keep up to date with the news and the terrorist attacks. Except now she was far enough away to be safe from it.

The months passed and soon the three of them had celebrated Ben's first birthday and the months were warming up considerably. As it got into April Ziva had started taking her seventeen month old to the park on most weekends, Lissy and her new best friend often tagging along. It was on one of these weekends when Ziva and Ben had been walking home from the park in the late afternoon; Darren had come with them and had Ben on his shoulders much to the little boy's amusement. Ziva laughed as he clapped his hands happily. Lissy and her friend, Daniella or Ella, trailed behind talking and giggling.

Across the road a man was watching Ziva, with shock written on his face. He had originally heard her laughter and thought he recognised it and when he looked around for it and saw her with a man and a young child he stared stunned. He watched as she leaned over her shoulder and called over her shoulder to two young girls. He watched as they ran up to Ziva and the unknown man and he watched as Ziva turned back to look at the little boy on the man's shoulder. The man flipped his phone open and dialled a familiar number, waiting for his fiancée to answer the phone.

"Abby, I think I just saw Ziva."

* * *

_DunDunDun..._

_What will happen next on the Eighth installment (Seventh Chapter) or Cos If you go I go._

_Whenever I say that title in my head It reminds me of T4 (If your from UK) and "Aygo by Toyoto sponsors T4."_

_So its like, 'cos if you go Aygo by toyoto spon...' Drives me nutty. _


	8. Gotcha

_Ugh, busy busy busy. I so very nearly forgot that I had to update this and I haven't written anything in like forever. Waiting for half term where I can catch up with my college work and get a handle on everything and write some more. Ugh. It shall be done. _

_Hope you enjoy the next chapter. xx_

* * *

Chapter Seven

The following Monday McGee walked in to the NCIS building, and headed straight over to his desk where he immediately started to research where Ziva had been for the past two years. He had begun typing information into his computer when he heard a squeal.

"Timmy! Did you find her, talk to her? Was it her?" She pestered as she ran up to her fiancé. She wrapped her arms around his neck and watched him type feverishly into his computer, she leant over and assisted. Doubling the speed. Agent Lee watched in amusement, not sure how the two could type on the same keyboard so fast and so accurately.

"Who did McLoverboy find, Abs?" Tony enquired leaning over his desk to stare at the two typing away furiously.

"Not sure Tony, I'll let you know when I have proof. Gotta tell Gibbs too." Abby nodded in agreement of Tim's statement focussing on the computer. She had stopped typing now and was instead leaning against Tim, watching as he pulled up numerous files nearly all in Hebrew, he scanned the dates trying to get one as close to the current date as was possible. He finally found one and printed it off. Abby ran to go and collect it.

"It's from the twentieth of March 2009. That was only four months ago. Not a clue what it says though, it's in Hebrew or something." Abby handed the piece of paper to McGee who scanned it looking for English words and then turned back to his computer he selected the first few lines of the original document. He copied and pasted it in to an online translator. It came back with a rough translation. He scanned it and pieced it together. He scribbled the translated version down on the back of the paper he printed off. When he had translated the whole document he handed it to Abby to read through. She scribbled a few things on the paper altering his wording before looking up at him happily.

"So basically she has been in Washington for five months and is working at the Embassy?"

"Yeah." McGee was slightly taken aback at how quickly he had managed to find Ziva after they had not heard anything from her for two years. Gibbs walked into the bullpen at this moment and looked at the overly excited Goth and the happy but concerned computer geek and stopped.

"Did you two set a date or something?"

"Yes actually. But that isn't why I'm happy. Well I am happy because we set a date, It's a bit close but It's the perfect date."

"Ok. So then why are you happy?"

"Timmy and I found Ziva, Gibbs." Abby handed over the piece of to a completed shocked and flabbergasted Gibbs who took it and scanned the English written translation. The second he had finished he grabbed his gun and badge and strode out of the bullpen, McGee kissed Abby on the cheek telling her she was the best and followed Gibbs out of the office, his bag slung over his shoulder, not having removed his gun and badge yet. Tony and Lee were a lot slower on the uptake and only realised what was going up by the time the elevator doors had shut and Abby had frowned at them both.

"Aren't you going to go and see Ziva?" She asked and at her words Lee and DiNozzo grabbed their stuff and sped out and down the stairs, trying to catch up with their boss before he left. They made it just in time. In fact they ran right into his car and managed to clamber into the back seat. Gibbs sped off in usual fashion to the Embassy.

"Anybody gonna tell me what's going on?" Tony asked after a few minutes. His response was to have a piece of paper fly at him from somebody in the front of the car. He caught it deftly and scanned through it. As he was reading this he couldn't help but think back to the last time he had seen her. He had asked her if she had been happy her long term friend was dead. He couldn't quite believe he had said that to her, and he never apologised. He wondered what she was like after two years of being apart. The same thought that cursed his dreams at night flew to the forefront of his mind; Ziva had been pregnant when she had left. What had happened to her child, and more importantly, wasn't the child his? Tony had no idea about this one, he didn't think Ziva would sleep around but he didn't really know her at all.

The sharp braking of the car interrupted Tony's thought's and he jumped out of the car and followed Gibbs and McGee into the entrance of the Embassy they all flashed their badges and were instructed to await for somebody to come and collect them. They sat and waited. Eventually an elderly man came and introduced himself as Michael Bashan; he shook Gibbs' hand and invited them to follow him to his office. They did so and soon found themselves in a plush room sat facing a large wooden desk.

"So, what can I do for you Agent Gibbs?" Bashan asked.

"I wish to speak to Ziva David." Gibbs never failed to get straight to the point. Bashan almost started at the fact he knew Ziva was in the country, let alone the Embassy but years of Mossad training allowed him to keep his cool. Instead he answered his enquiry with a question.

"What makes you think Officer David is here?"

"I saw her, yesterday." McGee chimed up. Tony looked across at McGee he must have missed this piece of information earlier, he wondered if she had been walking alone. His question would shortly be answered.

"You saw her? Where?"

"Erm, near the park three blocks from here. She was with some man and a little kid and two other teenage girls." McGee reeled off. Tony looked at McGee, a little kid, Tony's little kid? Unless it was the other man's, who was the other man? Tony was getting steadily more confused about the paternity of Ziva's apparent child.

"Hmm, Are you sure it was her? I shall have to contact Tel Aviv and get back to you, please allow Officer Levi escort you to the lobby." Bashan stood up and held his arm out indicating towards the man stood at the door. Gibbs stood up and glared at Bashan before stalking out of his office and down the stairs. Tony and Tim were more sedate merely following their boss out of the room in silence, Agent Lee jogging slightly to keep up with their pace.

When he room had been vacated Bashan returned to his seat and slowly picked up the phone ensuring that the NCIS agents were no longer in hearing distance.

"Ziva? Please come to my office, I wish to speak with you." He said quickly before replacing the phone back in the cradle. He waited and within the next five minutes there was a knock on the door. He looked up from where he was scribbling on paper and invited the person inside. Ziva opened the door and slowly stepped inside. She shut the door behind herself and walked to Bashan's desk her face showed little to no emotion or confusion although it was highly unlikely that she knew why she was there.

"Michael?"

"Sit Ziva. I wish to discuss something with you." Ziva nodded and sat in front of the desk. "Now, I know that at the weekends you take your son out and your brother and niece sometimes come along with you. Yes?"

"Yes, what has this got to do with anything? I can't force Ban to stay in the house for the rest of his life; I left Tel Aviv to allow him that freedom." Ziva replied fiercely, refusing to even allow Michael to suggest she does not continue with taking Ben out of the house.

"I was not going to suggest that. I was going to suggest a different park."

"Why? Ben loves the park I take him to." This reasoning got a sigh out of Bashan. He rested his elbows up on the table and rested his head on his hands, and he leaned forwards to survey Ziva more carefully.

"You were seen, by one of your NCIS friends. They are waiting in the lobby for me to supposedly be calling Tel Aviv as to find out where you supposedly are. What do you suggest I say to them, you are the one who desired nothing more to do with them after you're slight falling out with Benjamin's father." Bashan spoke with a hint of annoyance in his voice, suggesting Ziva had brought this upon herself.

"You seem to speak like I should have spoken to him Bashan. You do not know the last thing he said to me. He asked me if I was happy Jenny Sheppard was dead. You think he cared for me? That he wanted anything to do with me? I was just making it easier on him and Ben, I would not have wanted Ben to be constantly let down by his father when he could have been brought up without one, it is easier that way. Trust me, I should know."

"So? Do you want me to say you are not here or are you going to talk to them?" Ziva considered Bashan's words for a moment before leaning back into her chair and motioning towards his phone. He picked it up and informed Officer Levi to bring the NCIS team back up to his office. Ziva and Michael sat waiting in silence until they heard a knock at the door, Bashan loudly stated that the person knocking could enter, and he watched as the door creaked open and Gibbs, Tony, Tim and Lee walked in, to have the door shut behind them.

Gibbs stared at Bashan and was about to open his mouth to say something but Bashan removed eye contact; instead he looked down at one of the chairs that the team had previously occupied. This was the first time the team came to realise somebody else was in the room. Gibbs looked down at the dark hair and watched as the head nodded up and down in reply to Bashan's gaze. He watched still as the figure rose slowly from the chair and turned around to face the team. McGee was right, Ziva had been in D.C.

"Long time no see Agent Gibbs." Ziva said a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth, Gibbs however did not smile and Ziva noticing this raised her eyebrows slightly. "Not happy to see me then?" She folded her arms across her chest and stared back at Gibbs frosty gaze. The two stayed glaring at each other much to Michael Bashan's amusement who had long come to realise that more often than not Ziva got her own way.

"I'm happy to see you Ziva!" McGee suddenly broke the silence, the staring match and both Ziva and Gibbs turned to stare at him. Ziva smiled while Gibbs increased the intensity of his glare.

"Thank you Tim. I'm happy to see you too." Tim nodded in triumph, and Ziva stared around at the other team members, her eyes skipped over Tony as she noticed that he was avoiding her gaze by glaring at her right shoulder. Her eyes instead dropped to Agent Lee. "Agent Lee, my replacement? Hope they're treating you with respect." Agent Lee nodded silently.

"Where the hell have you been David? We've been trying to get you back at NCIS for the past year!" Gibbs finally burst out. All eyes now returned to the Ziva-Gibbs staring match, eyes locked blaring fiercely hiding all emotions and troubles from the other.

"I've been around," was Ziva's answer.

"If you do not mind, Ziva, could you take this into your own office?" Michael Bashan quickly interrupted the conversation. Although he would enjoy watching a pissing match he felt he had more pressing things to be dealing with at that moment in time. Ziva nodded.

"Follow me." She walked out of the office Gibbs stalking after her, when she held open the door to her office Gibbs closed it after he entered leaving Lee, McGee and DiNozzo on the other side.

"Guess he wants to scream at her in private before we can talk to her." Tony added used to Gibbs odd behaviour. He sat down on the floor leaning against the wall as close to the door as he could get, not that he needed to be close to the door to hear Gibbs yelling.

"Are you going to tell me where the hell you've been? We all thought you'd died!"

"I'm not dead."

"Good album that, Pink" Tony supplied on the other side of the door.

"I can see that David. Now, where were you?" Ziva surveyed him for a while before sitting in her chair and leaning backwards.

"I spent fourteen months in Tel Aviv, and then I moved to England, for four months. I've been here ever since." Gibbs seemed satisfied with that answer and so took a seat opposite Ziva's desk. He glanced around the room and scanned her desk.

"Photo frames? You never had photos on your desk at NCIS." Ziva smiled before turning the largest photo frame around, revealing the contents to Gibbs.

"I didn't need that when I was at NCIS did I?" The picture was a photo collage of the team. Abby had put them together in the few hours she had between learning Vance had split the team up and between them all heading out. It was varying photographs of Gibbs, Ducky, Tony, Tim, Abby, Jenny, Ziva and Palmer. Abby had down similar ones for all of the team. Gibbs smiled lightly when he looked over the pictures.

"The others?" He probed indicating two other photographs on the desk. Ziva turned one of them around, it contained a photo of Darren sat on the sofa while in England, he had Ben on his knee and his arm around Lissy. Ziva had snuck up on them both to take the picture. Gibbs frowned and so Ziva decided to point everybody out to him.

"He," she pointed to Darren, "Is my brother, Darren, the girl is Darren's daughter Alyssa and the boy is Ben." Gibbs nodded and turned the picture around as Ziva showed him the third and final frame. This contained a picture of Ziva, she had Ben on her lap, and he was giggling madly because Ziva had been tickling him. In the photo Ziva had her arms wrapped around him tightly and was placing a kiss on the top of his head, he was smiling at Darren who was taking the picture.

"Ben, right?" Gibbs tested, Ziva nodded.


	9. Share The Love

_I turned my pc off like an hour ago to watch TV. Than just as I was turning my telly off to go to bed I realised I hadn't updated. So here I am, turning my laptop back on and uploading this for you!_

_Sorry about so very nearly missing! But I didn't in the end, yeah me. (NCIS tomorrow whoot. Heartland was my fave ep so far, Nine Lives shall not compare. I doubt anyway.)_

_Just for those people who got confused at the end of the last chapter, I obviously didn't make it clear enough I'm not sure. Darren is Ziva's very much so older brother. He moved away from Israel when Alyssa (his daughter) was born to protect her. He was mossad for a while but left. Erm, not sure where cousin came from.  
What else? Oh Tony is just trying to find an excuse for being uncharacteristically mean to Ziva before by trying to make himself believe the baby wasn't his and he had no responisibility to him. They did only sleep together once, so to be honest it could be anybodies! Although the paternity will be revealed later on.  
__Umm, Lissy is short for Alyssa if you didn't realise, Darren is 9 years older than Ziva I think. I did map it out lol, I have a timeline and everything, I get confused otherwise and everything will end up overlapping lol._

_Wow, wall of Author Comments. Anyway hope you enjoy. xx_

* * *

Chapter Eight

After much discussion and persuasion Gibbs finally got Ziva to agree to go to NCIS headquarters tomorrow. She had accidentally let slip that tomorrow she had the day off because she had to take Ben and Lissy to the dentist and her attempts at getting out of it involved the fact she couldn't take the children into a federal building. Gibbs argument had been fairly well made.

"Don't you ever bring them to the Embassy?" Ziva had agreed to meet them there at about 1 o clock after the trip to the dentist. So now, Ziva was strapping Ben into the car seat in the back of the car while Lissy climbed in next to him. Within ten minutes she was pulling up outside of NCIS, she was early so decided to wait in the car, she turned over in her seat to talk to Lissy. The girl picked up what she was trying to tell her pretty quickly.

"So basically, don't tell them anything? Because you didn't specify anything specific when you were talking to the guy yesterday? Dad should be here, he'd love to wind you up over this."

"This is exactly why he is not here. That and because he can not get the time off work." Lissy laughed and unbuckled her seat belt getting out of the car. She leant on the door and peered over the roof at the building.

"Looks a bit drab. The Embassy is a lot posher." Lissy said, her head on an angle as she judged the building in front of her, she stood on the frame of the car where the door sits to get a better look at the building.

"Alyssa, if you fall and hurt yourself I am not driving you to A&E." Alyssa just shrugged and remained in her spot as Ziva detached Ben from his car seat. "Stop Ben, Lissy is busy at being a rubbish spy." Ziva said trying to stop the small boy from reaching out for his cousin as she pulled the last strap off him. She picked him up and the little boy squealed.

"Issy! Issy!"

"Oh I won't take that personally. Here." She muttered handing Ben to Lissy who took him whilst laughing at Ziva. The boy shouted 'Up!' and tried to climb up Lissy obviously trying to get higher like she had done. Lissy laughed before lifting him up onto her shoulders like her father had done two days previously. Ziva locked the car flinging aside bag over her head and shoulder, she led the way for Lissy and Ben into the building.

In the elevator Lissy had to take Ben off her shoulders and the little boy was now toddling around the elevator. The second the doors opened Ben dashed out and Lissy gave chase, catching him in a few seconds. Ziva took hold of the boy's hand and whispered something I his ear, the boy hung his head and tried to hug his mother. Ziva picked him up and he wrapped his arms around her neck. Ziva walked to Gibbs desk and he looked up at her.

"You're late." He said, and indeed she was by about five minutes. Ziva shrugged.

"Gibbs, this is Alyssa or Lissy, and this," she shrugged her shoulder to get Ben to move a bit, "is Benjamin or Ben. Lissy, this is Special Agent Gibbs, McGee, DiNozzo and Lee." She said pointing each person out to Lissy as they rotated on the spot. McGee was talking on his phone within seconds the rather excitable person o the other end came running into the bullpen.

"Aaah, Ziiivaa? Oh My God Ziva!?" Abby screamed when she saw her, Ben hid his face in her neck and Abby slowed down when she saw the little boy in Ziva's arms. "Oooh, who is this? Did I scare him, I'm sorry." Abby mumbled.

"Oh, he is fine. Ben it is OK it is Abby, she just wishes to say hello to you." Ben picked his head up and blinked at Abby. Abby smiled and said hello as sweetly as possible, Ben smiled back.

"Hi Ab-ee." Abby squealed at him as Ziva put him down on the floor, Ben immediately toddled up to Abby who had crouched down and opened her arms out to him. Ziva watched as Abby began to play with the little boy on the floor. She watched as Abby rose her left hand to cover her eyes but found Ziva had taken a hold of it.

"You are wearing an engagement ring!?" She stated shocked and Abby grinned widely.

"Yeah, I'm getting married in three months to Timmy." Ziva blinked before looking at Tim.

"Wow, congratulations you two!" Abby and McGee grinned before resuming Abby's game with Ben.

Ziva turned to face Gibbs who stood up and asked Ziva if he would accompany him somewhere, Ziva reluctantly agreed and followed him up the stairs to the directors office, she looked over the balcony to see McGee, Lissy and Agent Lee playing with Ben on the floor while Abby tried to get Tony to join them.

Gibbs led Ziva into a small room off the floor. He shut the door behind her and walked to the other end of the room; he had brought her into the conference room. He sat on one of the chairs and she followed suit. He was silent for a few minutes before Gibbs spoke up.

"I want you to come back to work for NCIS Ziva. You were a damned good agent, my best in the field. The team isn't the same without you."

"Thanks Gibbs, but I'm not sure, I loved NCIS don't get me wrong. Its just …"

"Ben? Alyssa? I'm guessing Ben is your son, you never said he wasn't and he looks a hell of a lot like you." Ziva nodded to Gibbs' correct assumption.

"Nothing will ever happen to him Ziva, trust me." Ziva nodded again.

"It isn't just that though. It will be too awkward working back here, before I left, DiNozzo and I were not exactly on good terms. I would not know how to talk to him at all."

Gibbs accepted her honesty but instead of offering her words of advice he slapped her on the back of the head. She looked up and smiled at him mouthing three words he never expected to ever be uttered about his head slapping.

"I missed that." The two smiled at each other before walking back into the bullpen.

"Mama! Mama! See see." Ben giggled running towards his mother, he fell forwards as at eighteen months although he was developing fast for his age he could still not walk more than a few feet. He picked himself up and continued on his way to his mother. Ziva bent over to see what he had, it was a picture he had drawn, a small boy in blue with a woman in black and a man in green.

"Ab-ee n Im!" he said proudly indicating to the two people who were no more than scribbles across the page. Abby had written their names across the top of the page to make it more obvious.

"Why don't you let Abby keep that Ben. I'm sure she would love it." Ben nodded and made his way back over to Abby who gladly took it from Ben saying she would put it in the wall in her lab. Ziva leant against the partition near her old desk. Tony stared at her for the first time since she had entered the building. She was watching her son and niece playing on the floor with Abby and Agent Lee.

"He's a cute kid Ziva." Tony said, only loud enough for Ziva to hear. She looked over at him and raised her eyebrows remembering how he had congratulated her when she had told him she was pregnant, she had been so scared and the baby's father had run off.

"I know. He is everything to me." She turned her attention back to her son, "I was so scared when I found out I was pregnant, I did not think I could ever be a mother. I had spent most of my life killing people, to bring a person into the world was something utterly different. I would not change it for the world." She had walked closer to Tony's desk to ensure nobody could hear her discussing her feelings, rare as it was to do even that.

"Thanks you, Tony." She whispered barely loud enough for even him to hear. Before he had chance to process this she walked off towards Lissy, Ben and Abby. She sat next to Abby who immediately spurted out all the things that had happened to her and McGee over the past two years, how they got together, fell in love and got engaged. She even invited Ziva to her wedding, McGee pulling an invite from somewhere. Ziva smiled and agreed she would attend.

Tony was watching as Ziva laughed and spoke with Abby, trying to decipher what she had said to him. He got the first part, she had been just as scared and unsure about having children as he was, perhaps more so. She was a born killer, not just commitment phobic, she was trained to hide her emotions and to mask how she was feeling he had not realised this before she had left. He screwed up pretty bad he figured. It was the last three words that struck him though.

She had thanked him; she had thanked him for giving her a child. Who thanks the person who got them knocked up and then ran away? Tony was to say the least, stunned. He had been beating himself up for the past twenty four hours over the fact Ziva had been a single mother for the past two years while he had continued dating every blonde brunette and red head under the sun. Guilt pulsed through him and he actually wriggled in his chair due to the weight of it.

Ziva stayed at NCIS for over four hours, she had spent a while in Autopsy with Ducky and Palmer, Lissy had been intrigued by the idea of Autopsy and much to Ducky, Palmer and Abby's (who had followed Ziva around for the day) surprise she had not been put off at all by seeing a dead body. Ziva had only wondered how often she had actually seen dead people. Alyssa had grown up in Tel Aviv and during terror attacks dead bodies often littered the streets, Ziva preferred this thought to that she had witnessed a murder or seen her father kill somebody. To protect his daughter, Ziva knew Darren would do anything.

Ziva had spent the rest of the time in Abby's lab, Ben had eventually fallen asleep and Abby had offered to put him up on her couch so her and Ziva could catch up. The three of them swapped stories and Lissy was more than happy to attempt at describing Ziva before she came to NCIS, something Ziva did not want to be broadcast. They spent a while thumbing through wedding brochures looking for a wedding dress for Abby, though not matched her description at all. Dark. Ziva had given up when Lissy had found the perfect dress.

She held up the page in the brochure showing it to Abby and Ziva. It was a deep purple colour; the top was a very tight fitting bodice with small black and glittery purple beads thread up it. The skirt flared out and was made out of a very shiny satin material. It flowed perfectly and Abby instantly fell in love with it. She leapt up and grabbed the magazine out of Lissy's hands and kissed the girl on the head. She picked up the phone and dialled the number for the boutique where the dress was from.

By the end of the day Abby was even happier than she had been when Ziva had visited. She was hugging complete strangers due to the fact she now had a wedding dress. McGee had been hugged and kissed so many times by his future wife he was now sitting in Autopsy with Ducky having his arm looked at where Abby had squeezed him so hard he thought she had dislocated his shoulder. Ducky gave him the all clear but he chose to remain in Autopsy until Abby had calmed down, he hoped she didn't get her hands on a Caf-Pow.

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_P.S. If you do have any questions I would prefer it if you signed in to review as if I don't have any form of contacting you I really can't even attempt at answering your questions. Ta. xx_

_So yeah, review me? The McAbby wedding is in the story somewhere, but not for like many more chapters. xx_


	10. Bye Bye Ben

__

Heartland still beat Nine lives, but Nine lives still rocked!

_This is the second time I'm doing this. Grr. Crosses fingers, Hoping it works this time! _

_I'm totally watch the first epi of the terminator series and OMG Cameron tried to shoot John. He was stroking her hair and all sorts last season. Break his ickle heart! Lol._

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Chapter Nine

Ziva became a regular fixture at NCIS after agreeing to help Abby to organise parts of her wedding. When she could she brought Lissy, but always had Ben with her. She finished work at four o clock as agreed when she joined and as the team at NCIS didn't leave until six at the earliest she had a good two hours a night to talk with Abby or sometimes to Gibbs, Ducky or the rest of the team. This went on for about a week since Ziva had first visited at NCIS, the guards at the front desk where asking to give her back her badge so they didn't have to sign out all the forms every time she arrived as a visitor. Gibbs pointedly told this to Ziva who remarked that she was still thinking about it.

She was, since her meeting with Gibbs who asked for her to return as a NCIS agent she had done very little but think about it. Her job at the embassy was perfectly, it was suited around her son which is why she chose it. She had loved her job at NCIS and if she didn't have Ben there would have been no question. But she did have Ben and there was a question. She had spent many an hour talking to Abby about what she should do, and Darren and Michael Bashan on occasion. She had yet to talk to Tony about Gibbs' proposal but she felt he already knew.

It was coming up to the middle of July and Ziva had been visiting NCIS for about 9 days. It was a particularly warm Friday and Ziva had been allowed to leave the embassy early to go and pick Ben up so she could spend the rest of the afternoon with him. She had done just that, taking him to the park for an hour. She arrived at NCIS later than normal as she had spent so long running around and pushing her son on swings. Ben was sleeping in her arms when she arrived, completely worn out by his afternoon antics. Ziva walked through the bullpen stopping to ask for a quick word with Gibbs in private after leaving Ben with Abby to watch over.

McGee heard this and quickly offered to watch the little one. Ziva had allowed the pair of them to watch him last Sunday as Abby had said she wanted kids and Ziva had offered to let her and McGee look after Ben to test if they were capable. Turns out they were and both had bonded very much so with Ben. Ziva thanked McGee before handing the little boy off into McGee's arms who cradled the little boy in his lap as he sat at his desk. Tony watched Ziva hand Ben over and then walk off silently with Gibbs. Gibbs and Ziva walked into the conference room they had previously occupied to discuss her return to NCIS.

"You made a decision?" Gibbs asked before he had barely shut the door.

"Yes." Ziva answered quickly. "Although it would require my being allowed to leave if at any time I need to do so for Ben or Lissy. Okay and I'm not having you berating me if I am late, or have to bring Ben with me because believe it or not baby sitters do not often work 24/7."

Gibbs simply smiled. "That can be arranged." He slid a gun and badge across the table towards her. "Welcome back David." The two smiled at each other as Ziva pinned her badge and gun to her waist. She walked out with Gibbs back into the bullpen where Agent Lee was moving her things to the desk near to McGee's. Ziva looked at Gibbs his eyebrows raised. "It was never really a choice David." He smirked and she just laughed. Glad to be back home.

Within Minutes Abby had arrived in the bullpen silently hopping around, McGee having rang her and gave her pre warning Ben was sleeping in the same room so she couldn't be noisy. She hugged Ziva tightly and to most people's surprise and raised eyebrows by McGee Ziva hugged her back. Abby just clung to her even tighter, refusing to let her breath. After a while McGee pried her off, handing the sleeping Ben over to his 'Aunty Abby' who gently rocked him as he wriggled in his sleep. After a while Ziva and Gibbs went off to the director's office to go and sort out some paper work and Abby and McGee were left with Tony and Agent Lee in the bullpen.

Agent Lee was busy working as well was McGee, Tony however was playing a game on his phone. All of a sudden however, Abby was standing over him.

"Watch Ben, I need to go back to my lab, I was running some tests and they should be finished. Langer will have my head if I don't call him when I get the results. He is so grumpy." Abby didn't even give him a chance, laying the sleeping infant across Tony's chest who managed to drop his phone in his attempts to force the infant back on Abby. By the time he stood up without waking the child Abby was already at the elevator. Tony looked over at McGee who was speedily typing, either writing a chapter for his latest novel, or repeating the computer diagnostics he often ran when bored.

"McGoggly? Watch the kid, you're good with him."

"He's sleeping Tony, It doesn't matter if you're good with kids, just keep him asleep or Ziva will kill you."

"Thanks McHelpful." Tony muttered realising the child was murmuring in his sleep, possibly trying to wake up. He gently laid the child in his arms and walked back and forth cradling the eighteen month old to sleep. The child quickly fell back into a peaceful sleep, his small fists clutched at Tony's shirt, making sure he kept a tight hold of him. "Get off kid. Soon as you're mother comes back she's gonna take you back off me."

"Quite right DiNozzo." Ziva said stood behind him, he turned around and Ziva held her arms out, asking silently for DiNozzo pass the sleeping child to yet another body for the third time that afternoon. He did so quickly, and the boy instantly nestled his face back in his mother's neck, one arm dangling to his side the other over Ziva's shoulder.

"Don't you trust me or something? I can look after Kids." Ziva looked up to find Tony watching her as she sat down behind her desk, readjusting slightly so Ben could sleep in her arms.

"It is not a case of trust. I trust a lot of people. Does not mean I want them around my son. Bad influences." She answered, looking him directly in the eye. Tony broke the gaze fully aware of what she had just told him. What she had meant to say was, 'I do not want my son to abandon his own children.' She just didn't have the gall to do it in front of Gibbs.

The next few hours passed by uneventfully. Ziva almost nodded off with Ben in her chair, before he awoke with a new burst of energy which he used to leap out of his mothers arms and attempt at running off. Ziva had taken this as a moment to take him home as if he fulfilled his desk wishes he would have emptied most of the contents of her, Gibbs and McGee's desks. Mainly because all three would have allowed him to. McGee loved Ben already and Gibbs had quickly fallen for the little boy already just not showing it in public.

Later on that evening after Ziva had successfully tired Ben out for the second time that day, and herself as well. She was sitting on the sofa with Darren when Lissy jumped on them both in an accurate imitation of Ben; they both yelled and started tickling the teenager who squealed loudly. Lissy's yelling and laughing almost caused them to miss the knock on the door. Lissy however leapt up, catching her breath and listened; when she heard the second tell tale knock she ran out to get the door, panting slightly.

"Hi, how may I help you?" She answered after peering in the peephole and ascertaining it was probably the gas man. Darren came and leant on the wall near the door to the lounge room where Ziva was still sitting. The man at the front door looked Darren up and down before muttering something.

"What's that?" Darren asked politely.

"Who is it D?" Ziva called, getting up to walk out to the door, picking her gun up as she went. She walked into the hallway to see Tony standing there looking extremely awkward. She raised her eyebrows.

"Tony! Do you want to come in?" She asked politely. He nodded and Ziva led him into the lounge shutting the door behind them.

"Who is that man? You're boyfriend? Husband?" He dove straight in, jealousy cutting through his voice.

"My brother." Ziva answered, completely calm. She had learned a new type of patience, living with Lissy and having a child of her own. Tony hung his head obviously ashamed at his sudden outburst. "Why are you here Tony?"

"Oh, well I was wondering… about Ben?"

"You want a paternity test doing or something? I could get Abby to do one tomorrow. She already tried when I refused to tell her Ben's father." Tony's head snapped up at this. Ziva smiled. "Tried Tony. She failed. I got Ben out of there sharpish." Tony smiled slightly.

"Well, no. Yes. I would like a paternity test, but I would want to get to know him, if that's ok with you. McGee and Abby had him one day, I'm meant to be you're partner right. It'd be odd if everybody else got to watch you're kid and not me."

"Sure Tony. If that's what you want."

"Tomorrow? Can I watch him tomorrow? Please." Ziva raised an eyebrow.

"I guess."

"Alone. I won't take him far. Just to the park. I promise, you can come and watch over us if you want but I'd like to be alone with him a bit. Please?" Ziva seemed to be deliberating this but she eventually caved.

"I will be there; you will not leave my sight. Or rather Ben will not leave either or out sights. Got it?" Tony nodded before exiting her house. Darren and Lissy who had been listening in from the dinning room re-entered the lounge smirking at Ziva, who swiftly threw a cushion of the sofa at them both.

Saturday came quickly for Tony and Ziva. She had informed Ben that her friend from NCIS would be going with them to the park; she had arranged it with Tony that morning. He agreed to meet them at the park Ziva often frequented to spend some time with his supposed son. Ziva had first persuaded Ben to allow her to swab his mouth from one of the DNA swabs she had in her evidence bag. She placed it in her work bag to have Abby analyse on the quiet on Monday morning.

When they arrived at the park Tony was already waiting for them. He was sat on a bench as Ziva carried Ben over balanced on her hip. Tony stood up and walked towards them, the two headed towards the play area, which was relatively deserted so early in the morning. Ziva sat on a bench and told Ben to stay with Tony at all times before handing the boy over to Tony who walked steadily towards the play area, stopping to ask the boy what he wanted to play on first. He pointed to the swings and Tony headed off in that direction as Ziva watched from her bench seat.

Tony had pushed Ben on the swings for twenty minutes before the little boy had decided he wanted to play on the jungle gym for toddlers. Tony and Ben wandered around for nearly half an hour on the play things, Tony pushing Ben down slides and putting him on the top of the tower. Ziva laughed from her seat in the distance, glad her son was having such fun with his father. The father he had never known. Ben next wanted to go further into the play area, to the end near to the road. Ziva stood up to move closer to them to make sure she always had a perfect vision of her son, but somebody caught hold of her arm.

"Shalom Ziva."

She spun around to see a man she did not recognise. He increased his grip on her arm and grinned evilly looking over her shoulder, Ziva saw a black truck pull up on the road at the other side of the playground. Ziva pulled her arm out of the strangers grip and punched him in the nose flat palmed. He was either knocked out immediately, or killed. She neither knew nor cared. She turned around and ran towards Tony and Ben. She saw two men walking towards Tony who pulled Ben up off the floor and stood straight as the men approached him.

One of them punched Tony straight in the face, he was unable to defence himself quickly because Ben was in his arms. The second man pulled Ben away from Tony while he was distracted. The first man kicked him in the stomach and kneed him in the head when he fell to his knees. Ben was already being carried away in the truck. Ziva ran past Tony just as the truck pulled away she chased it half way down the road screaming constantly.

She lost it at the end of the road. She stood there for what must have been thirty minutes at least, watching as the truck that her son was in disappeared in to the distance. When she next realised Tony was standing next to her. He was bleeding from his nose and it took all of Ziva's strength not to punch him also, him being the man who she had left her son with. She knew however it was her fault, she could not blame Tony for something she had obviously done to her own child. She just had to figure out what.

"You're nose might be broken. We should get Ducky to look at that."

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_What did you think!?_


	11. Elijah Faraj

_ Next chapter. Hope you enjoy it!_

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Chapter Ten

Ziva sat at her desk. She was staring straight ahead, not seeing whatever it was she was looking at which happened to be the filling cabinet between Tony and Tim's desks. McGee watched her sympathetically until Gibbs came back into the roomwho ignored McGee completely and instead went and crouched down in front of Ziva. He placed his hand on hers and she seemed to come back to reality slightly. She stared down at Gibbs face looking up at hers.

"The guy you knocked out? Just came around. I'm going to interrogate him, if you want to watch I'll be in room three." Ziva nodded before thinking and watched as Gibbs stood up and walked away. She re thought what he had just told her and she merely slunk back into her chair. She didn't need to see some crazy suicidal lunatic raving about how his group got the kid in the end, regardless of his 'sacrifice'. Ziva closed her eyes and leaned back further in her chair, resting her head to one side.

Gibbs slammed the door, startling the groggy man out of his doze. The man looked up and glared at the newcomer. Gibbs silently and without looking at the man walked over and sat down in the chair opposite him. He gently placed a file on the table, the man glanced at it repeatedly before settling his gaze back on Gibbs. Gibbs waited for a while before pulling several photographs out of the file. One was a photograph of Ziva, another one was a photograph of Ziva and Ben supplied to Gibbs by Ziva and the other three were all photographs of Ben taken within the last few months.

"Do you know who this woman is?" Gibbs asked pointing to Ziva, the man stared at the picture before nodding his head.

"Ziva David. Director of Mossad's last remaining child. To answer you're next question, Benjamin David, only grandchild to the Director of Mossad and Ziva David's only child." The man seemed content with his answering of questions and leaned back in his chair and waited patiently for Gibbs to ask his next question.

"Who do you work for?" Gibbs questioned. The man smirked.

"What makes you think it was not my mission, my own personal vendetta?"

"You wouldn't have been stupid enough to get caught. Now who are you working for?"

"Patience is a virtue, Special Agent Gibbs. Now arrest me, or release me." The man stubbornly pointed out holding his wrists out and together as if about to be cuffed. Gibbs stood up and stormed out mentally going through numerous laws he could attempt at arresting him for. He was right however, they had no proof. The only proof they had was Ziva saying he had distracted her at the exact same moment the unknown kidnappers had taken Ben. Not exactly substantial evidence.

Gibbs decided he would go and get coffee. He needed to think about the best way to approach the situation they were in. He just needed coffee.

The elevator to the bullpen dinged drawing McGee's gaze forwards until he realised the elevator that had made the noise had been the one behind him, the one that led to the basement and Abby and Ducky's domains. He turned his neck and saw his fiancée walking towards him pampering to a rather battered Tony. McGee smiled sadly at Abby, the smile barely gracing his eyes. Abby replied the smile to the same level before hugging McGee. Tony looked past them both to stare at the sleeping form now slouched over her desk.

He walked towards her to hear her mumbling in her sleep, he leaned closer to her and sighed he considered walking her but was not sure if that was such a good idea. He raised his arm ready to nudge her gently to ease her awake but it froze above her when he heard her say Ben's name, she mumbled something about her fault and began shaking slightly. Tony took this to mean she was having a nightmare and slowly nudged her awake. When she finally did wake she leapt backwards and was momentarily disorientated before taking in her surroundings and allowing the past few hours to catch up with her. She groaned and allowed her desk to fall forwards and hit the desk. She mumbled something incoherent and Tony asked her to repeat it.

"My fault. I shouldn't have let him get so far away; I never let him get so far away. I never let him out of my sight for the first year of his life. I thought he would be safer here I was so wrong, I failed him completely. Worst. Mother. Ever." She mumbled. Tony watched her as she spoke into the desk; he slowly walked around to her side of the desk and crouched down next to her chair. He spun it around so she was facing him. Her arms slipped off the desk, her neck was forced to support the weight of her head.

"Whatever it was, not at all you're fault. Okay? You couldn't have known those guys were going to turn up you're not psychic Zee."

"Doesn't make me a better mother." She mumbled in response before standing up and walking over to the bathroom where she remained for the next twenty minutes. According to Abby who had been thrust in there by peer pressure and a promise from Tony he would hurt McGee in a place Abby may want to use in the future if she didn't go in. She came out a ten minutes later looking like she was on the verge of tears. She had plainly told them Ziva is blaming herself and wishes to be left alone a request Abby had heeded after Ziva had threatened to murder McGee a threat which Abby took deadly serious. Who would mess with an assassin whose son has been kidnapped?

Abby had retreated to the safety of her lab for the rest of the day to avoid being pressurised into any unnecessary suicidal Ziva hunts. She persuaded McGee to give her half hourly reports and updates as soon as they came in. He did so and Abby gladly noted all the new developments although with Ziva hiding in the bathroom they were few and far between. Gibbs had eventually broken the man Ziva had knocked out. He had merely told them what they all suspected, revenge attack most likely on Mossad possibly personal. Gibbs was yet to figure it out and Abby had nothing to do but wait for the phone to ring.

The bullpen was a flurry of activity, the man was yet to give Gibbs the organisation in which he worked but he did offer up several vital pieces of information to allow the team to do some form of work. McGee was tracing all the contact the man had received in the past three months by checking his phone and bank records. He kept drawing blanks. Tony was busy attempting to contact Tel Aviv and Ziva's father in the hopes he could help them out. No luck again. It was over an hour before the team began losing momentum. Tony and McGee both kept glancing towards the bathroom door where Ziva was still hiding.

She had been in there for nearly an hour before she made herself look relatively respectable and exited. After completely breaking down for an thirty minutes Ziva had gotten angry at herself for doing so and then again for wasting time. She plucked up the courage and left the room. She walked across to her desk and sat down, picking up her phone as she went. She dialled a familiar number and it went straight through to her Father's office. She quickly explained the situation to him and he agreed to send over any case files she had worked on that could lead to somebody wanting her dead or hurting. Ziva then pressed the hang up button and waited to hear the dialling tone; she then dialled the number for Darren and told him what had happened.

Within ten minutes he had arrived at the NCIS, Lissy slightly bedraggled after a whirlwind few minutes she immediately hugged her aunty before breaking down in floods of tears. Ziva held her while she sobbed in to her shoulder; Darren struck up a conversation with Tony, Tim and Gibbs at the other end of the bullpen. He demanded being involved with the investigation they were no doubt carrying out. Gibbs agreed his eyes never leaving Ziva's back, and the teenage girl sobbing in to her shoulder. Gibbs shortly told Darren and McGee to take Ziva and Lissy home as they would be more comfortable and not in the way of Gibbs investigation.

When Ziva had returned home she had walked around the house several times before being stopped by her brother who looked her straight in the eye telling her there was absolutely nothing she could do except wait for Mossad and NCIS to pull through for him. Ziva began to start nodding before breaking free of his grasp and walking back around her house, entering each room and picking up toys packing them away, before walking back in to the same room and placing the toys back on the floor. McGee was sat in the lounge room with Darren and Lissy for most of this time, he had attempted getting Ziva to join them but she had flatly refused.

McGee and Darren received regular updates from NCIS but nothing new was uncovered, the members of the David home were beginning to get restless again when Ziva's cell phone rang. She had left it on the side table when she entered her house and now McGee and Darren both glanced at it. Lissy however stood up and answered it, she had been doing this for her father and Ziva when one of them couldn't get to the phone for several months.

"Hello? Ziva David's phone, Alyssa speaking."

"Al-is-sa?" The man on the other side spoke out as Lissy frowned; she took a moment to glance at the caller-ID not a number she knew. She flicked some buttons as she walked towards her father and McGee, as Ziva re-entered the room they hushed her as she began to talk. "Alyssa, where is Officer David?"

"She isn't here right now, Can I take a message?" Lissy adopted a secretary type persona, leaving no room for negotiation.

"Yes, you may Miss Alyssa. You may tell her if she ever wants to see her son again, she must offer herself up in turn. You may also tell her Elijah sends his love." The man cut off the connection as McGee and Lissy frowned at Ziva, while Darren stood up. He was shaking from head to toe and he quickly embraced Ziva in a hug. He knew exactly who Elijah was and knew if this was his doing he meant business. He also knew now why they had not merely taken Ziva when she was in the park, alone. It would have been simple.

Ziva saw out of the corner of her eye as McGee dialled that all too familiar number for Gibbs, she watched as he quickly relayed the message and Gibbs gave McGee some unknown order before he closed his phone. He walked towards Lissy and she quickly ran off up the stairs. He then walked towards Darren and Ziva; they separated, although Darren kept his arm around Ziva's shoulders, protectively. McGee was not used to seeing Ziva in need of comforting let alone protecting. He told Darren what was happening and he nodded following the same path his daughter had a few moments previously. Ziva just stood there not looking at McGee who quietly filled her in and told her that she, Darren and Lissy would be staying at NCIS that night, in the break room. Gibbs had felt it safer for all three of them not wishing to relinquish protection detail to Mossad.

Within twenty minutes Ziva was walking back into the NCIS building, her head hung low reliving a certain time of her life. Darren knew what she was thinking and scowled, he knew Ziva better than she liked to believe, and knew the plan that was forming in her head. He had his arm wrapped around Lissy and pulled her closer, angry that she had gotten pulled into his sister's ridiculous lifestyle. He had left to protect Lissy, he was devastated after her mother died and so did everything he could to allow Lissy to live in a world that was not culturally divided, constantly at war. He wanted her own world to be peaceful and happy, where her only dilemma was whether or not to wear a pink or a blue top that day. His plan was certainly failing.

That night Ziva, Darren and Lissy were all shut in the NCIs break. Along two walls there were two sets of bunk beds, allowing room for eight people to sleep at a time. One wall housed a door while the other a window. Ziva quickly flopped down on a bed while Lissy slowly studied each bed on one wall opposite Ziva before climbing up in to the bunk nearest the door. She flung the overnight bag she had been told to pack by McGee on the bed next to hers. Her father smiled before lying on the bed under the one that now contained all the overnight bags. He watched Ziva as she rolled over on to her back. She kicked the slats on the bed above her, her anger getting the better of her.

"Isn't your fault Zee. You weren't to know the guy was psycho, you can't be psychic all the time."

"I should have seen it the first time I met him, it was way too obvious to be chance. Come on, I knew he was Muslim I knew his father hated Jews. It is the next step to assume he is either a supporter of or a member of HAMAS or similar. I was foolish and now my son is paying for it."

"Zee, you was not foolish, you was thirteen. Ari and Tali and I were just as foolish." 'Of course we never dated the kind of people who we knew would force our father in to a rage.' He finished his sentence off in his head, recalling the numerous boys Ziva would bring home purely to aggravate the father she had never felt loved by. Of course, the ones she cared about she didn't bring home.

Ziva sighed and glared at Darren before leaning away from him in to the wall folding her arm under her head as a makeshift pillow, her pillow pulled over her head as if trying to block out a loud noise. Darren watched her for a while ensuring she was asleep when her snores began to pierce the room. He shifted slightly, standing up, Lissy was also long asleep. He climbed back into his own bed and pulled the covers up to his neck falling asleep quickly. The last thing he remembered was a particularly loud snore coming from the direction of Ziva's bed.

She rolled over, stealing a glimpse of her now sleeping elder brother, meddlesome brother. She knew he would be watching her, waiting for the tell-tale onset of sleep, her particularly loud snoring. When it arrived she knew it would only be a matter or a few minutes before he went to sleep himself. She continued the charade for longer than she thought necessary and it paid off. When she stood up and walked towards him he made no movement at all, either an incredible actor or actually asleep. Either case, she could now leave here. She did so, making for the door silently, she slipped it open and crept down the darkened corridor, and she noticed a faint glow coming from the bullpen, which means somebody, was still there.

She chose to take the back elevator; she could go down to the basement and 'borrow' one of the NCIS vans. She liked this plan so quickly made her way to the lift, hiding in the alcove she went to press the button, before realising the lift would ping when it arrived, realising this she opted for the stairs slowly creeping down them until she was at least two floors down were she broke into a sprint. As much as one can sprint down stairs anyway. Her plan went off without a hitch, the NCIS van was sat there waiting, she did have to hot wire it because only team leaders had keys and she had to break into the van too, but soon she was on her way.

She drove around before stopping at a payphone and dialling a number scribbled on her forearm.

"Shalom Elijah." She whispered.


	12. Ziva Faraj?

_Apparently my last chapter was laden with grammer mistakes, let me know if this one is better. Hope you enjoy it. _

_So my internet keeps going haywire, not sure when I can next update. It will hopefully be Wednesday but if not it will be as soon as I can get it up! =]_

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Chapter Eleven

Darren woke at almost ten to four the following morning. The first thing he did was glance across at Ziva, it took him a few minutes to realise her bed was empty, he quickly scanned all the other beds before slipping out of the room leaving his daughter sleeping. He looked up and down the empty corridor before making his way towards the bullpen; he saw Gibbs sat at his desk; cup of coffee in one hand, the other desk bore two sleeping agents. Darren bypassed them completely making a beeline for Gibbs, who looked up when he saw him coming.

"Where is Ziva? Have you seen her?" Darren asked, swiftly. Gibbs blinked before answering.

"Not in bed I'm guessing? Tried the bathroom?"

"If she is not sleeping then she has left. I know her." Gibbs raised an eyebrow, he could admit this was odd for him, having somebody assume they knew Ziva David; after all she had long since been a mystery to most people in America. "Trust me Agent Gibbs, I watched her grow up, we had the same treatment from our father. I know exactly how she thinks because we think the same." Gibbs took this nodding.

"DiNozzo! McGee!" He yelled causing both agents to leap up from their desks; McGee banged his knee on the desk while DiNozzo slammed the back of his chair in to the shelves behind him causing them to wobble ominously. McGee, Gibbs and Darren all looked at him who shrugged apologetically. Gibbs told them to gear up throwing the keys to DiNozzo informing him to gas the truck. He walked off towards the back elevator. Gibbs told McGee to check all the rooms on this floor and then told him to watch out for Lissy, she would worry when she woke up. She was not to leave the building. McGee nodded before jogging off. Gibbs turned to Darren throwing him a spare cell phone.

"Call her." Darren did so, he held the phone up to his ear it rang numerous times before going on to voicemail, he informed Gibbs who said that meant her phone was turned on, she was just not answering. Gibbs walked around the corner to see McGee appearing in a doorway he told the computer whizz to locate Ziva's phone ASAP. McGee darted back in to the bullpen and set up the search while he searched the rooms. Gibbs was about to walk towards the back elevator when his phone rang. DiNozzo.

"Gibbs." He answered.

"She took the van boss, the van! Ziva took it." Gibbs grimaced.

"We'll take my car. I'll meet you at the entrance." Gibbs order was met by a hurried yes boss before the call was cut off. Gibbs instructed Darren to follow him to the front elevator. They got in and made their way down to the front. DiNozzo was stood waiting for them; Gibbs led them out into the open air around to the back parking lot. He made his way towards his car but stopped short, a man was standing there. He looked pretty sheepish and was holding a piece of paper in one hand. When he saw Gibbs he glanced repeatedly between his face and the paper.

"S-s-special Agent G-Gibbs?" He asked, moving away from the car, the group noticing a little boy in his other hand, the boy shuffled along, not able to walk that fast. Darren ran forwards and the little boy's face lit up when he saw somebody he knew. He pulled his hand out of the stranger's fist and raised his arms to his uncle.

"Dodd Darr-Darr." He yelled as his uncle raised him up in his arms, before backing away behind Gibbs and DiNozzo. Ben wrapped his arms around his uncle's neck as Gibbs advanced on the stranger. The man looked terrified before shakily holding out the sheets of paper.

"This guy gave them to me. He had been arguing with a woman in the park the one near to that cute little bistro? Pecking Park or something." The man rushed out. "The man told the woman to get in to this car, and she refused so these other men came out and were like surrounding her so she had no choice, then he handed me those pictures and that little boy and told me to find you. Said to come here and give you the boy, said you could find his family."

Gibbs relaxed slightly. He sensed the man was honestly terrified, and he had brought the boy back to them he chose to lead the man in to the building to question him as opposed to interrogate. Darren had already gone back inside, taking the young boy with him. Tony and Gibbs led the man inside, his name was Liam Morgan. They found out he had children and a wife at home and he worked as an accountant for America's largest bank. After getting as much information out of him as they could and McGee had run a full background check finding he had no ties to HAMAS they let him go, thanking him for his assistance.

Ziva had indeed agreed to meet with Elijah, she knew what he wanted. It had been obvious to say the least. Although she had long since forgotten about her teenage relationship with the boy who seemed determind to ruin her life. She was currently in the back of a van, not having any idea as to where she was going, the one thing Elijah's goons had done was frisk her although when they had gotten a bit too close to certain body parts Elijah had stopped them forcing them to completely miss one knife and her cell phone. She would have preferred them missing her gun and several knives, but a cell phone is quite useful. More so as it was switched on, Gibbs would sooner or later find her and kill Elijah. If he didn't she just hoped Ben would be found.

The van eventually stopped at a local small airport. The two henchman sat in the back with Ziva stood up and opened the doors; Elijah was stood at the entrance.

"Come my love, we begin our new life together."

"Where?" Ziva asked pointedly.

"Where ever you wish my darling." Ziva glared at him. His face fell and he nodded to one of the men flanking the van they stood inside and pulled Ziva out. She barely struggled; she didn't have a hope in hell of getting out of here unless she knocked the two guards out then took out Elijah. She had to plan this carefully.

"Toilet." She said. "I need to go to the bathroom." Elijah glared at her before requesting that the larger of the men accompanied her, he did so and as soon as they were out of sight and hearing range Ziva quickly silenced him. The trouble now was taking out the other one before she got herself shot. 'Shot?' she thought, searching the man for his gun. Semi-automatic, Jericho. She smiled before checking to see if it was loaded, it was. She turned and headed back around on to the air field where she could clearly see Elijah and the second henchman awaiting their return. Elijah spotted her first and noticed she was alone.

Ziva wasted not time, she shot thrice and the bodyguard hit the floor before he had even reached for his gun. Ziva walked towards Elijah training her gun on him, he had already managed to pull a gun out himself and the two were now squaring up to one another in the middle of a now deserted airfield.

"You can not kill me Elijah, or you would have done already. You know I do not love you, nor will I ever." She hissed he merely smirked.

"Oh you would have grown to love me Ziva, rekindling our romance from all those years ago-"

"Sixteen! It was sixteen years ago, you think I still think of you, you realise I have a son Elijah. You seriously think my mind ever wanders to you?" His smirk faltered before being plastered back in place as if it never left.

"You are not married, nor are you seeing anybody, you need somebody Ziva. You are never whole without your soul mate." The last words were like poison to Ziva's ears, she had her soul mate, he just couldn't see it. Nor would he ever as far as she was aware. Ziva focussed her gun higher, aiming between his eyes.

"You think you are my soul mate? You think I could kill my soul mate?" Elijah just smiled more. Ziva pulled the trigger and he fell with his ridiculous grin plastered on his face.

McGee had long since found the location of Ziva's cell phone, they had been following it for several miles before it stopped and they caught up with her. They crept closer and caught the end of Ziva's conversation with the man known only as Elijah. They heard him mention the words 'soul mate' and watched as Ziva spat out an angry retort before shooting him in the head. Ziva remained standing her gun trained on the spot where Elijah had fallen. Darren stood slowly and made himself known to Ziva before jogging forwards towards her.

Tony watched as the man advanced on Ziva, he attempted to embrace her again as he had done so often over the past few days. Ziva merely shrugged him off walking away towards where the rest of the team where approaching from the side of the building. Ziva walked straight up to Gibbs and looked him in the eye; he knew exactly what she was thinking and answered her question aloud.

"He is safe, Alyssa is currently entertaining him." Ziva let out a breath she was unaware she had been holding before taking a step sideways and leaning against the wall. Gibbs walked off towards the bodies McGee trailing behind like an obedient puppy. Tony watched Ziva as she shut her eyes and tilted her head back against the cold hard wall.

"You could have been killed you know?" He whispered, trying not to let his voice portray his worry.

"It would have been worth it, for Ben to live. I would die for him Tony, it was my mess he was dragged in to and the least I can do is giving my own life up in exchange for his; I brought him in to this world. He is my responsibility and I love him. He is all I have" 'of you.' She finished her sentence in her head, before walking over to the car to sit inside it waiting for Gibbs to return allowing her to see her son. To her annoyance he told DiNozzo to drive her back to headquarters, drop her off and then drive back. As they had only brought one car.

Back at headquarters Ziva hurriedly rushed over to her child embracing him tightly as the little boy did the same. Ben screamed for his mother the second she walked in to the room and toddled as fast as he could, (which was incredibly slow), before collapsing in to her arms. Tony watched this embrace and he felt an odd sensation in his heart. He wondered if it was guilt, he had gotten Ziva pregnant, abandoned her and then abandoned the child, allowing Ziva to give up her entire life, nearly literally just to see the boy alive. Happiness seemed to be beyond the picture; he guessed that growing up in a war torn country meant that she felt happiness was unimportant; surviving each day was the challenges that obstructed Ziva's childhood. While the ones in Tony's had been whether or not he wanted to date the sexy blonde, or the beautiful redhead.

Tony exited sharpish making his way back to the crime scene. He sighed realising he must face the truth eventually; he was the childs father. He could never abandon a child his own father had been a disapointment to him he would never forgive himself for being the same to his own child. He decided he had to swallow his pride and talk to Ziva, he knew he wanted more than being a father. He wanted the whole thing, he just didn't know how to get it.


	13. DNA Decisions

_Oooh, I'm late at uploading! I'd apologise but we all know that apologising is a sign of weakness!_

_Anyways, I am sorry and I hope you enjoy this chapter! =] _

_Murder 2.0 was good I actually followed the storyline as opposed to just paying attention to the character interaction for once. =] Go me!_

* * *

Chapter Twelve

Back at NCIS Ziva took Lissy and Ben downstairs to go and find Abby. She was busy in her lab when Ziva walked in, when Abby spotted her Abby spun around and leapt at Ziva embracing her long time friend. She then turned to the boy and hugged him too much to his amusement. The boy had grown attached to Abby greatly and enjoyed her company, Abby loved him all the more for this and hugged and kissed him every chance she got. Abby led Lissy, Ben and Ziva into her office where she had a large sofa against one wall. She had a duvet and pillow folded up underneath for when she stayed here overnight.

Abby sat on the sofa and pulled Ben up on to her knee, Lissy collapsed next to her and curled her feet up under her body, resting her head on the back of the chair. Ziva stayed standing in the doorway, watching as her son happily played with the chains on Abby's top. Her mind went back to that time several hours ago when she had persuaded her son to give her a DNA swab. She wasn't sure if she should even offer Tony the proof as to Ben's paternity. She wasn't sure if he would care. She certainly didn't want Ben to learn he had a father only to have him be let down by him.

Ziva's moral dilemma was put to rest when her phone rang. Who else, Gibbs, she flipped the phone open as she ducked out of Abby's office.

"Hello?"

"Ziva, you need to come up to the bullpen. Need your statement." He hung up. Ziva flipped her phone closed and popped back in to Abby's office.

"I'm just heading up stairs, can you watch Ben please? I'll be back in a bit. Thanks Abby."

Ziva exited the room, leaving for the bullpen. DiNozzo and McGee were at their respective desks typing away while Darren was standing at Ziva's desk, talking to Gibbs. The two looked up when they saw her approach and Gibbs motioned for Ziva to follow him. She did so, and he led her into the conference room where he sat down with her and looked at her, waiting for her to begin explaining the series of events that led to three autopsies for ducky.

"I was thirteen, Elijah fifteen. I did everything my father forbade, everything I knew would anger him. I always dated the boys who I knew my father would disapprove of. When I was fourteen I brought a nineteen year old home, my father hit the roof." Gibbs coughed, bringing Ziva back to the topic at hand. "Right, I dated Elijah for two months, because my father was so adamant I shouldn't. I learned his father was HAMAS so I dumped him. He seemed to think we were destined to be together, threatened me somewhat. I ignored him, thinking he was merely stung by our break up. So I perhaps under-estimated him slightly."

Gibbs nodded his head. "So why exactly did you do what you did?"

"Swap for my son? Any other parent would do the same Gibbs. If you was given the choice to have been in the car instead of Kelly would you have?" Gibbs stared at her.

"Yes. Of course." Ziva nodded, folding her arms.

"I was positive he wasn't going to kill me, whereas my son was at greater risk. I went along with it until I could get out of their. I took the opportunity at the airport. Said I need the bathroom, one of the guards accompanied me. I took him out and stole his gun. I shot the other guard when I was close enough, but when I turned around to shoot Elijah he had pulled out his own gun. He started talking so I heard him out. He said something about soul mates and that I would never be able to shoot him. So I shot him."

"Right. Is that it?" She nodded. "You can go then." She stood and walked straight out the door. Gibbs followed seconds later. Ziva walked by her desk and grabbed her bag before heading back down to Abby's lab. Darren followed her, when they got in to the lift he flicked the emergency stop button.

"Interesting. You have a private talk with Gibbs?" Darren looked at her amused.

"How did you-"

"Only way you would know where the emergency stop button is." She answered for him. He smiled.

"I take it you are OK then?" He looked at her as she turned her head to look him in the eye. "Yea, Ben is OK, so yes. I am fine." She smiled and he nodded. Ziva leaned over and flicked the switch back on. The ride down to Abby's lab was silent. The two walked in together, Darren had arrived to take Lissy home as Gibbs had given them the all clear a few minutes prior to Ziva's statement being taken. While Darren and Lissy got back in the elevator with Ben, Ziva hung back wishing to talk with Abby.

"Sup, Ziva?" Abby cheerfully smiled.

"Erm," she slipped her bag off her shoulder letting it hit the floor, "I am so not sure whether this is a good or bad idea. I want you to run a DNA analysis on Ben. To prove his paternity." Abby looked at slightly confused.

"To prove paternity? That would suggest you know who the father is?"

"I do. I think perhaps though, he does not wish to know. So even when you get the results you must not let anybody know ok?" Abby nodded.

"I'll need-" Ziva thrust the DNA swab in to Abby's hand before she could finish her sentence, Abby grinned and busied herself setting up the equipment while Ziva walked slowly out to the elevator to go and meet Ben, Lissy and Darren in the bullpen.

Tony watched the group leave the bullpen out of the corner of his eye; he had decided his previous thoughts were stupid, idiotic. How could he ever abandon Ben? He could never willingly give up his on child; he persuaded himself that if Ben was his then he should be in his life. But then that other voice popped up asking him what he would do if Ben wasn't his child. Asking Ziva for a paternity test was like saying he didn't trust her in the slightest. He was just being sure though wasn't he? Tony went home that night trying to work out how best to tackle the situation.

The following morning Ziva had come in to work early, she was sat in Abby's lab with Ben waiting for Abby to arrive. Abby offered to let Ben stay in her office during work hours so Ziva would be close to him without him getting in her way. Ziva had already set up a travel cot in Abby's office next to the sofa and Ben was playing peacefully inside. Ziva watched him for nearly twenty minutes before Abby came bustling in. She spotted Ziva quickly and headed towards her.

"I got the results yesterday, I couldn't guarantee I wouldn't look so I had it sent straight to print and I closed my eyes and then folded it up and put it in an envelope which I sealed and then I took that-"

"Abby!"

"Right ok, here it is. Hey Benny-boy! How are you this morning? You are gonna be spending the day here with aunty Abby, good huh?" The little boy nodded sleepily before returning to his toy cars. Abby looked up at Ziva who was still holding the unopened envelope. She smiled at Abby thanked her for watching Ben and offered to take her out for dinner to make up for it. Abby said there was no need, besides she wouldn't have time, she spent most evenings planning for the wedding.

Ziva walked back in to the bullpen, she was a few minutes later than everybody else, but having left her bag at her desk it was obvious she had been here a while. That and she emerged from the back elevator. She walked to her desk, stuffing the envelope in her top drawer not needing to look at it or indeed use it unless it was asked of her. Gibbs was already at his desk typing away, cup of coffee in front of him. He didn't even look up when Ziva walked in. He had plenty of paper work to do, all relating to her stunt the previous day.

"Didn't ask for you in today David." He said after a while of silence.

"I'm fine. I had no reason to take time off." She never took her eyes off her monitor as she answered him. She had 53 e-mails, opening them she saw most were from Tel Aviv and people she had known at Mossad. She opened one; it was asking for her whereabouts, if she was fine, the friend was worried they hadn't heard from Ziva in a while. She deleted it, as she did with all of the others from Mossad. She didn't want to broadcast where she was. How many more psychotic people has she pissed off over the years? Too many to count.

That left 2 E-mails one from Darren, _'Have fun at work, going to pick Chinese up on way home. See you at 6.'_ And another from McGee, _'Glad you're back. DiNozzo is hell when its just the two of us. Hope Ben is settling in. xx.' _Ziva smiled before typing replies to them both. After a few minutes she got an instant messaging request from somebody, she thought it might be Abby but when she checked the name it was obviously not Abby. _'Italian Love God'_ could only be one person, she clicked accept and a box popped up.

"Are you ok?"

"Fine."

"Good." He paused before typing again. "Is Ben ok?"

"As far as I am aware he was not harmed, physically or mentally."

"Good."

"Is that all you was after Tony, because I have got work to be doing."

"No." He quickly typed. "No. I wanted to say sorry. Ben was with me at the park so the whole thing was my fault. So I'm sorry."

"It was not your fault, it was mine Tony. I should have done something."

"What? Chase the van all the way down the street? There was nothing you could have done, I should have fought better or told Ben to run, but I didn't did I?" The two were so focussed on their conversation they didn't notice Gibbs watching them he hid a grin as he turned back to his computer opening an instant message window with Tony and Ziva in.

"It was neither of your faults. Get over it." He typed before closing the window; both his younger agents looked up at him, he concealed a grin before returning to his paperwork.

"He is right." Ziva typed in to the original conversation window.

"I guess. I still feel bad, if you had of died out there it would have been because of me."

"I didn't, so forget it. Ben is safe that is all that matters."

"You matter." Tony typed without thinking. Ziva read and re-read this line trying to come up with a response.

"Not particularly. Mossad train us to believe lives are worth less than the information they contain, or are trying to collect."

Tony didn't know what else to type, while he was thinking Ziva posted another comment.

"You do not know what to say. Many people don't understand that in Mossad you quickly learn that if you are not killed by being captured while collecting information; it will be in a terror attack. Most likely before you turn 40. It is a better option to be collecting information to bring the opposition down yes?"

"I guess. Doesn't mean life is not precious. I wouldn't want anything to happen to you or Ben."

"Nothing did."

The conversation was forgotten as both Ziva and Tony turned their attentions back to paperwork as it was getting close to Lunch time and neither had done much more than open their documents. It was later on in the morning; about ten minutes before the team were dismissed for lunch when Tony had gone back to conversation with the intention of asking Ziva for a paternity test. He didn't know she was thinking up a way to let him know she had done the test already. Ziva found the words first.

"I had Abby do some tests yesterday." The message popped up in front of Tony. He nearly missed it. He read it and panicked.

"Tests? What types of test?"

"Paternity. For Ben."

"The results?"

"I haven't opened the envelope. I know what it says." She pulled the envelope out and placed it on her desk. "The envelope is on my desk. If you want to know then look." Ziva stood up and walked over to McGee's desk. She asked him if he would get Abby to join them all for lunch. He accepted and the two left for the back elevator. Within minutes Gibbs also left. Tony remained seated glancing at Ziva's desk he eventually caved and walked towards the envelope on the top of the pile of paperwork.

He flipped the envelope over and slid his finger under the flap, he flipped it over and the sheet of paper fell out. Folded, he gently turned it over and over in his hands before unfolding it. He glanced at the paper looking for a name; he found it and stared at it for nearly five minutes.

* * *

OMG Who's the daddy?

_Well, I know because I've written the entire story. Minus the Sequel. Which is like not even got a title or anything yet! Isn't that fab? You may have to wait a while before I get the sequel up there. xx _

_Hope you enjoyed._


	14. Ben DiNozzo?

_Happy Halloween! Hope you're having a fun time. I spent the day shopping for christmas pressies! How spooky. =]_

_Next update. Some people thought that this was over. Not yet my dears, another eight chapters to follow this one. Hope you enjoy. xx_

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Chapter Thirteen

When Ziva and McGee came back in to the bullpen from lunch Ziva noticed that the envelope was gone from her desk, as Tony was from his. Ziva sat down and pulled a form towards her scanning through it and signing the bottom, it was a copy of her statement based on what happened between her and Elijah. She was halfway through reading a report on Elijah's autopsy when Tony walked back in to the bullpen, he had a slight grin on his face, one he couldn't seem to be able to contain no matter what he tried.

"Ziva, could I have a word with you?"

"Sure." Ziva said looking up from the report to see Tony leaning over her desk. He stood back and pointed to the elevator she followed him towards it.

When the two were inside the elevator Tony let the doors glide to a close before hitting the emergency stop button as the two began to descend towards the basement. Tony seemed to have chosen the back elevator for some reason. After a few minutes of peaceful silence Tony reached in to his pocket and pulled out the envelope containing the DNA results. He handed it to Ziva who looked at it in confusion but Tony nodded at her implying she was to read it. Ziva panicked thinking perhaps she had mistimed her pregnancy and hence forth made a complete fool of herself. However when she opened the envelope the name that popped out at hers was the one she was expecting.

Father: Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo.

Ziva looked up at Tony judging by the grin on his face he seemed quite comfortable by this fact.

"You are happy?" Ziva asked unable to keep her level of shock out of her voice.

"Yeah, well Ben is a great little lad. I did kinda guess somewhat as well. I mean he is like me quite a bit." Ziva nodded along to this having seen the similarities herself over the past eighteen months of his short life. "Anyway, I did decide that day at the park; even if he wasn't my own biologically I would have wanted to take on the role of his father. I mean every kid needs their Dad."

"I know, even though we did OK without ours." Ziva muttered to Tony's laughter.

"Yeah, sweetcheeks but think about how much more perfect we would have been if only our fathers had cared about us."

"Oh, yeah, like your head could get much bigger." Tony swatted her playfully and she returned the blow with a bit more force. Tony cleared his throat turning the situation much more serious.

"I was thinking, about being Ben's father. I was thinking I mean, I loved both of my parents but I always wanted them to be together you know. I always promised my kids would have the perfect family, Mom, Dad, Brothers, Sisters and a great big Alsatian dog." Tony grinned.

"You want to buy an eighteen month old baby an Alsatian? Smart."

"No, well the dog was more for me." Tony said quietly as Ziva grinned at his childishness. "No, what I was trying to say was that I think I want to, no I do want to, I…" Tony didn't know what to say he turned to Ziva who was smiling amused at him, she raised an eyebrow.

"If you are trying to say what I think you are trying to say Tony the-" The end of Ziva's sentence was cut off as Tony pressed his lips down on her own, it was quick and sweet. Ziva just stared at him for a few seconds trying to work out if he actually just did what she thought he did. When she came back to her senses she grabbed hold of his tie and yanked it towards her, Tony came flying after it and he crashed against Ziva. Their lips found each other as the two backed up against the wall. Ziva pinned between Tony and the metal of the elevator. The two remained locked in their passionate embrace Ziva's hands entangled in Tony's hair, while his were tugging at the hem of her shirt trying to bring her as close to him as possible. After about ten minutes of tongue tennis Ziva eventually realised her hold on Tony pushing him away. The two attempted to catch their breath as Tony looked at his watch.

"Crap we're late! Gibbs will go spare." Tony went to press the emergency stop button again to make the elevator go but Ziva stepped in between; she pulled at his tie straightening it for him. He grinned and ran his fingers through her hair, it was how he liked it, straightened but with a hint of a wave. Ziva returned his grin as she turned around and flicked the switch. She pressed the button for the bullpen where the elevator opened its doors to that familiar sight, Tony and Ziva exited the elevator letting it continue its journey to the basement.

"Hell have you two been? You were both expected back nearly fifteen minutes ago!? Well?"

Tony and Ziva exchanged a glance.

"We were going to see Abby, but we got to talking in the elevator, and we lost track of time. So we came straight back here." Ziva spun off quickly remembering Gibbs rules, 'When you lie, always be specific.' "He wanted to know if I was alright, after yesterday and he thought I would tell him that I was feeling all sad and pathetic if we were alone. Then I would be lying though, yes?" She aimed the last question at Tony who sneered at her before walking over to his desk. Gibbs seemed quite impressed by Ziva's obvious lie. Well obvious to Gibbs, so he let it slide.

The rest of the day passed by uneventfully, except for Tony and Ziva's long running Instant messaging conversation. Tony had been trying to get Ziva to blush by sending her dirty messages but in the end she sent things back so graphic Tony found himself getting hot. Ziva grinned when she noticed this and tried hard to contain her laughter.

The week passed by with Tony and Ziva having several more meetings in the elevator and Ziva had allowed Tony and Ben to spend several long hours playing together and bonding one evening while she spent the time cooking in her kitchen for the two of them. The following Friday Tony had surprised Ziva with a trip to a very decadent restaurant. She had immediately told him she refused to leave Ben alone in the house but as both Darren and Lissy reminded her the two of them were always there, in the house.

Ziva had enjoyed her evening immensely, and the two of them had gotten absolutely wasted on the many bottles of alcohol and Tony ended up crashing on Ziva's couch. The following morning was not a happy one for Tony who woke up with a splitting headache and a child screaming from upstairs. He pulled his blanket over his face as the screaming got louder. He heard somebody yell over the noise.

"Ziva is in her room, you two can hide out there while I calm Ben down. I think she was throwing up last I heard." Tony could hear the amusement in Lissy's voice as she walked away towards the kitchen. Tony slowly headed upstairs and quickly found Ziva's bedroom, he followed the sounds of retching. He sat on her bed and waited for her to emerge from her en-suite. When she did he laughed, she looked like hell.

"You can not hold liquor anymore."

"Well, I haven't been drunk at all since I left NCIS. That is like two years ago. My idea of a rave is watching Teletubbies." Tony laughed at her as she flopped down on the bed next to him. He laid down next to her placing his arm around her neck and pulling her closer to him so her head was wedged under his arm. She wrapped one arms around his torso and slipped one leg over his. The two laid like that until they had fallen asleep. Lissy walked past the door with a now calmed Ben on her hip drinking out of a bottle. She pulled her phone out of her back pocket and snapped a photo of the two of them snuggled up together on the bed. She quickly texted the image to Abby figuring it would get around NCIS in a matter of minutes if not seconds knowing Abby.

Lissy smiled at the two of them as Darren walked up near to her wondering what she was looking at he grinned glad to finally see his baby sister so happy with somebody she could actually sleep comfortably with them. Having been so similar to Ziva he knew how hard it was for her to allow herself to get close to people, torn between the Mossad approach to relationships and the rest of society's view. Darren put his arm around his daughter after she allowed Ben to crawl around on the floor at her feet. Darren was extremely grateful he had allowed himself to shun his own Mossad training and was given the miracle that was his daughter.

Several hours later Ziva woke from her sleep to find herself sprawled across the width of her bed one arm around Tony and his arms securely tied around her waist. She lifted her head slightly up off the bed to watch him as he slept, after about twenty minutes she felt him stir slightly. She stroked her hand around his chest encouraging him to wake up. He eventually managed to force on of his eyes half way open to look at Ziva.

"Morning again."

"Morning? It is almost one o clock. It is a good job we do not have to go in to work today." Ziva smiled.

Tony just mumbled a response pulling Ziva closer in to him wanting to go back to sleep but Ziva pushed back against him. He mumbled again but gave up letting his arms drop to his sides.

"Come on Tony, You need a shower. Get up." She prodded him in the side. He groaned and rolled over Ziva gave up and went to get in her shower herself letting Tony go back to sleep on her bed. Half an hour later when Ziva was showered and dressed she headed back upstairs with Ben safely on her hip. When she got in to her bedroom to see Tony still asleep on the bed she dropped Ben next to him letting him crawl on top of his father in an attempt to make him get up. It worked and Tony did indeed surface from his slumber.

"Hey kiddo, ow! Don't kneel there!" Tony squealed as Ben crawled on top of him. Ziva sat down on the bed next to him, after a few minutes she pulled Ben up off Tony allowing him to sit up. He did so and watched Ziva as she sat Ben on her crossed legs, she tickled him under his chin and he giggled at her. "You are so good with him. That is so creepy you know that right?"

"I know. I scare myself sometimes." She admitted as Ben snuggled back against her placing his head on her chest, she wrapped her arms around him.

"If I did that you'd hit me." Tony pouted, Ziva hit him anyway.

"You have done enough thank you." She mocked flicking him playfully on the end of his nose, Tony feigned hurt before grinning. Tony stayed at Ziva's house for several more hours before finally leaving; he flirted with Ziva on the doorstep for several long minutes before Lissy yelled from the front room that the two of them should just 'get it on.' Tony took her words to heart and stopped Ziva mid-retort by pressing his lips against her own. He pulled Ziva towards him as she began returning his kiss wrapping his arms around her waist one slipping under her t-shirt. Ziva placed one of her hands on his chest while her other one was thrown over his shoulder.


	15. Lexi

_=] Is NCIS on this Tuesday? Sucks if it isn't._

_Anyway, Chapter 14 for you! Hope you enjoy. x_

Chapter Fourteen

It was five weeks since Tony and Ziva had made out in the elevator and the time for McGee and Abby's wedding was closing in. Tim had chosen Tony for his best man and Abby had asked for Ziva and several of her other friends out of NCIS to be her bridesmaids. Abby had also requested that alongside her own father she wished for Gibbs to give her away. All of them had accepted gladly. Abby had been adamant for several weeks that Ben should carry the rings but as Abby hadn't yet taught him how to keep the pillow upright while he stood she had reluctantly allowed Tony to look after the rings.

Tim had been coming in to work extremely tired of late due to the stresses of having an overbearing future wife who couldn't decide on the colour of the flowers. Tony had found this extremely funny until Tim had made a point that Ziva might want to get hitched although Ziva seemed to be more concerned about his comment than Tony it nevertheless shut Tony up, temporarily at least. The team had long since decided the wedding would have been perfect if those they had lost had been there. Abby had fixed two picture frames for the wedding one containing a photo of Kate, the other a photo of Jenny the picture frames were currently gracing Abby's desk.

It was closing in on September when Ziva got an unusual phone call, although it seemed unusual she had been receiving the call from the same person on and off for over a year now. She had been confused the first time it had happened merely a woman's voice she recognised giving her a date and time to meet. Ziva did and was met by a most unusual sight. She was now used to the phone calls, although they rarely asked for a meet as the person was rarely in the same country as Ziva. However this time the caller gave Ziva a date, time and location but before the caller could hang up Ziva managed to get out a sentence.

"DC? You are in DC?" She shot out over the phone, Tony and Tim both looked over to her trying to gauge her reaction, she had only ever used that tone of voice when Darren had called once to tell her that Lissy had taken Ben to the park Ziva was obviously panicked and demanded Darren go with her.

"Yes, I am. You are not very subtle Ziva."

"Sorry Lexi, You shocked me."

"Shocked you? Motherhood made you soft Zee. Give my love to Ben but I must go. Blue belle café, Saturday 10 A.M." Lexi said before hanging up the phone, Ziva grumbled before putting her own phone down. Tony and Tim were still watching her.

"Who was that Zeevah?" Tony asked her.

"Old friend who got back in contact last year, we meet up sometimes." The two nodded at Ziva's answer it satisfied both of them sufficiently. Although Ziva had been telling them the truth it had not been the whole truth and she felt her 'friend' was putting her in a rather awkward position. Ziva put it to the back of her mind, it was less than 48 hours when she could see her long lost friend and let her know this. She faced her paperwork and began typing away on her computer.

The next two days passed by quickly and soon Ziva was getting ready to go out on Saturday morning. She got Ben ready and headed downstairs to go and get him some breakfast. Darren had offered to take Ben to the Zoo but Ziva had told him she would be taking him to the Blue Belle café to meet a friend. He had asked the friends name and when Ziva told him he frowned about to begin a lecture but she put her hand up to silence him while going to check on the bread she had thrown in to the toaster.

By 9.30 she had left the house, Ben was secured in the back seat. It only took twenty minutes to get to the café and so Ziva was early. She decided to buy Ben a drink while she bought herself a coffee, she sat at a table at the back of the café her eyes focussed on the door. Ben was happily sloshing chocolate milkshake everywhere. At exactly ten o clock a tall and thin blonde woman walked in to the room. She was wearing a pretty blue pinafore dress with tights. Her long blonde hair was curled falling past her shoulders. The woman put her hand to her eyes pulling off the large aviator sunglasses disguising her eyes. She smiled when she saw Ziva and swiftly made her way towards her.

Ziva stood up to greet the woman, embracing each other in a hug. The woman smiled at Ben and stroked his hair before commenting on how big he was. The two women sat down at the table and the newcomer hailed a waitress to order a coffee with milk and cream.

"Although I could do with bourbon." She joked as the waitress left to get her coffee.

"Actually, I think a trip to the hairdressers might be more useful. Your roots are showing." Ziva smiled pointing to the top of the woman's head where a subtle hint of red hair was beginning to show through.

"Oh I don't like being blonde anyway. I'm going to dye it to my natural colour." Ziva raised her eyebrows.

"Um, Lexi? If you do that and then start walking around DC somebody will recognise you."

"I'm so fed up Ziva." Lexi stopped talking as the waitress came back with her coffee; she smiled and thanked her handing over a handful of notes to pay for the drink. "I want to be me again."

"You can not just be you again. Did you not go through all of this for a reason Lexi?" Ziva asked of her friend. Lexi shrugged taking a sip out of her coffee. The two were silent for a while as Ziva tried to distract Ben as he had begun fussing, she tried to clean him up from the milkshake he had consumed but his waving arms made it too difficult so she gave up and turned back to Lexi.

"So, what are you doing?" Lexi just stared at Ziva, not sure how to answer her. Eventually she uttered a response in to her coffee cup.

"I don't know. I didn't exactly think this whole thing through. I mean I did think about it, for twelve hours. I don't know, I should have come back sooner but I was enjoying the freedom the ability to walk down a street without feeling the need to carry a gun. I just want that back now. Life isn't the same now."

"Tell me about it." Ziva muttered who was trying once more to clean up Ben, although this time she was doing a better job of it. Lexi laughed at Ziva, which startled Ziva into looking at her friend as if she had lost her mind. "What?" She asked.

"You. You're a mother. I mean you're actually a mother. Ziva David who knows how to kill with almost anything and she is currently trying to raise a child. Never thought I would see the day."

"You and me both. Actually, most of NCIS too."

Lexi smiled before her face fell. She pondered something internally for a while as Ziva managed to clean the rest of Ben enough for him to respectably go out in public. By the time the two old friends had finished their coffee Lexi had come to a decision. She persuaded Ziva to go with her to a salon on the edges of DC so she could get her hair dyed. Ziva agreed reluctantly.

In the salon Lexi had persuaded Ziva to get her own hair cut and styled she actually bribed her telling her she would pay for it and that it would make her feel so much better about herself. Ziva eventually caved and a little while later had about three inches chopped off the bottom of her hair and had plenty of layers cut into her hair. The stylist had washed blow-dried and straightened her hair Ziva was immensely happy with her new look and seemed to be glad Lexi had made her get it done. Next was Lexi's turn.

She sat in the chair and asked to see the hair dye colours. When they came around she immediately flicked to the red section, picked out a lovely deep coppery red. The stylist nodded her head and went to go and mix the colours. Ziva and Lexi talked for a while as Ben played in the corner with several toy army people the receptionist had supplied for the boy. When the stylist came back Ziva left to go and sit with her son as Lexi got her new hair colour. When the stylist had dyed and washed her hair she gave it a quick trim but kept most of the length on it as Lexi had said she much preferred having longer hair to her shorter hair.

When she had dried and curled Lexi's hair, Lexi went over to the receptionist to pay for their appointments. Within a few minutes the three where in Ziva's car heading back across town, Lexi kept looking at herself in the mirror and smiling. Ziva kept glancing at her out of the corner of her eye and laughing at her.

"Stop laughing. It's good to be red again." Ziva laughed more.

"I'm not laughing at you. I'm happy you are happy." Lexi grinned at her friend glad they were that now, friends. They had gone through a phase a few years ago were their relationship had become much more professional instead of friendly. Lexi regretted this and she knew Ziva did too, they had put their lives in the other's hands entirely and had therefore becoming incredibly close. Lexi knew most of Ziva's past and Ziva knew most of Lexi's. She regretted lying to her friend, she had put her through hell for a year and she knew it.

Although the thing she regretted most was not knowing about Ben until three months after he was born. Lexi looked in the mirror and saw as Ben wriggled in his car seat attempting to make himself more comfortable. Lexi had timed Ziva's pregnancy and realised that the last time she had seen her she would have been pregnant, yet Ziva had never tried to tell her. This had hurt Lexi but she had long since decided she had done a much worse thing to Ziva and several other people who she loved and who had once loved her.

Ziva stopped the car outside of a hotel. Lexi looked up frowned and then looked back at Ziva.

"Please. Like I didn't find out where you are staying. I tried to keep tabs on you after last year just in case you did not call again." Lexi laughed before stepping out of the car. Ziva followed suit leaving Ben in the back. She walked around to the other side of the car and gave Lexi a hug, which Lexi reciprocated.

"Please do not do anything stupid Lexi." Ziva said hugging her friend all the harder.

The newly redheaded Lexi laughed flicked her hair out of her face before replying to her friend.

"I won't don't worry Zee. Don't do anything stupid yourself; you have that gorgeous little boy in there to live for." She added pointing to Ben in the backseat who was starting to whimper wanting to get out of the car as well. "You will see me soon, sooner than you might think. So just be safe, look out for everybody for me."

"I promise." Ziva laughed, feeling like her mother was giving her a lecture. "Though I can not promise not worrying. I do that a lot these days."

Lexi laughed before giving Ziva one last hug and turning her back on her friend to walk in to the hotel she pulled her bag up on to her shoulder and turned her head back over her shoulder smiling at Ziva.

"Bye Lexi." Ziva said with a jovial wave.

"Jenny." Lexi replied.

"What?"

"Call me Jenny, Zee. It is my name."


	16. Guess Who?

_So sorry about such a late update! _

* * *

Chapter Fifteen

Jenny Shepard walked in to the NCIS building the following Monday after she had shocked Ziva in to telling her to call her by her real name, not the name she had adopted for the past two years and four months. She smiled at the security guard who was obviously new and made her fill out visitor forms. He gave her a badge to pin to the front of her jacket and she did so. She smiled once more at the guard before making her way to the elevator. She waited for the elevator to arrive and when it did she stepped inside it pushing the button for the top floor. The floor which led the way to her old office and the floor where the major case team were based.

The elevator seemed to take forever to get all the way up to the top but when it finally did Jenny stepped out and looked right immediately, she noticed that Tony was not at his desk she hoped the team were not out on a case. She walked slowly towards the bullpen and noticed McGee was at his desk typing away, Tony and Ziva were both leaning over his shoulders and making smart ass comments. Tony kept laughing and Ziva was repeatedly hitting him on the arm. He said something particularly bad and Ziva straightened up and crossed her arms raising an eyebrow at him he just grinned then continued staring at the screen.

"Oh God." Ziva yelled. Having just noticed Jenny leaning against Tony's desk. Tony and McGee both looked at her then at where she was staring. McGee's eyes widened and Tony almost yelled out taking a step backwards.

"Good reaction Tony. Where is Gibbs?" Jenny asked ignoring the two shocked agents and the looks Ziva was firing across the bullpen at her.

"Le-Jenny what are you doing here?" Ziva asked almost calling her Lexi. Tony and McGee were both too shocked to notice this and just remained staring at the woman who had been apparently dead for over two years. Ziva managed to push Tony out of the way and walked towards Jenny. The two watched each other for a while, Ziva had her arms crossed over her chest and Jenny was leaning against the desk still. Eventually Ziva gave in telling her what she wanted to know.

"Director's office. He left about ten minutes ago, should be back soon. Are you going to wait here for him?" Jenny nodded and so Ziva turned on her heel and grabbed a hold of Tony and McGee and dragged them towards the back elevator. She threw the two of them inside before getting in herself. She pressed the button for Abby's lab and waited until the doors closed.

"Gibbs is going to go spare. Do not want to witness that." She muttered and Tony finally mustered up a small laugh.

"Not in person, McHacker can get us into the camera in the bullpen and we can watch and listen from the Lab." He grinned; Ziva shook her head in exasperation. Within seconds the three of them were entering Abby's lab. She squealed when she saw McGee throwing herself at him enthusiastically.

"Timmy! Hey Tony, Ziva!" She added with a wave as she had locked her arms around McGee's neck. Tony laughed at McGee for a few seconds before coughing declaring he had some interesting news.

"Is it good news because if it is bad news I don't want to hear it."

"Jenny Shepard is alive." Tony blurted out. Abby looked shock before her face fell.

"That isn't funny Tony."

"It is true Abby." Ziva added while McGee began typing away at the computer bringing up the viewing of the bullpen where Jenny was currently wandering around examining things on the desks. She had picked up the photo of Ben on Ziva's desk and had examined the many photos of Abby on Tim's desk. Gibbs desk was decidedly void of photos as was Tony's all his photographs were in his drawer.

"Woah!" Abby mouthed when she saw Jenny walking around. "It is really her. Get me a DNA sample." Abby demanded as she kept her eyes on the screen.

"Gibbs will tell us if it is her." Tony said. "Unless he has a heart attack of something, I nearly did up there." Abby sighed and hugged Tony quickly before turning back to the screen. The three were stood sat watching the plasma in Abby's lab for several long minutes before Gibbs came on to the screen. Abby turned the volume up on the screen and they all leaned forwards to hear the conversation and study Gibbs reaction.

In the bullpen Gibbs had just walked on somebody leaning over his desk. He was about to say something when he noticed she had red hair, perhaps he knew her. He cleared his throat to get her attention and almost fainted when he saw the woman wheel around. She smiled when she saw him and took a step forward, he didn't move so she hung her head.

"I am so sorry Jethro. I … I well, I didn't mean to hurt anybody by what I did." Gibbs managed to get over his shock and practically flew across the room to the last woman he had loved. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in close to him, her head on his chest and her arms found their way around his waist. He felt her break down in his arms and held her tighter as she cried out her sorrows.

When she had finally cried herself out Gibbs moved away slightly allowing himself to get a better look at her, he flicked a hand through her hair and she smiled at his touch.

"Do you forgi-"

"Don't apologise Jen, It's a weakness." He smiled and she smiled as well teary but it was still a smile.

"So why did you do it. How did you do it?" Gibbs asked.

"I wanted out, I wanted to live a normal life, I realised I gave up on everything for my career. The fact somebody was out to kill me just made it easier. How? Slightly more complicated. I had Ducky run some blood samples previously faked to suggest I was ill, that was my original plan fake an illness then just die one day."

"Was Franks in on this?"

"No. An old friend." Gibbs raised an eyebrow at her. "My cousin, she had the illness and her dying wish was to get me out of the business because she thought it had changed me. We always looked so alike so it was easy. I had already swapped out my medical records for hers so when Ducky ran blood analysis it came up as mine."

"Damn it Jenny. Just retire?"

"I'm too young to retire Jethro." The two grinned. Jethro pulled Jenny back in to a hug and he placed a kiss on her head. She smiled in to his chest before moving her hands up from where they was pressed against his torso up and wrapped around his neck. She leaned back and he leant forwards and kissed her.

Down in Abby's lab the two couples were all smiling at the plasma screen immensely glad that Jenny was apparently alive and more so that Gibbs and Jenny had finally found each other. Abby kissed Tim she was so happy and Tony leaned towards Ziva to kiss her only to get a finger pressed against his lips instead. He pouted and she smirked. The two looked towards Abby and McGee who were currently locked in a fierce embrace as was Jenny and Gibbs. The two looked at each other.

"Go see Ducky?" Ziva nodded at Tony's comment and the two hastened to exit.

"It's like somebody spiked the water supply or something." Tony shook his head. Ziva laughed at him and his ridiculous notion.

When Gibbs finally let go of Jenny the two grinned at each other, Gibbs sighed and dragged her off to the elevator. She raised her eyebrows at him but a simple word was all she needed.

"Coffee?" He grinned; she returned his smile before hitting the button for the reception, the two walked out on their way to the nearest coffee shop. On their way there Gibbs subtly took a hold of Jenny's hand as they were walking down the street. She stopped in her tracks causing him to spin around to face her. She stared at him, silently asking him what he was doing. He answered her by taking a step towards her. She looked up in to his eyes as he came even closer.

"I love you Jenny." He whispered stroking his free hand through her hair. His right hand was still clutched tightly in hers. She closed her eyes and leaned in to his touch, allowing the skin on his hand to caress her hair and face. He gently leaned forwards and placed gently light kisses across her jawbone. She moaned lightly and placed her own free hand on his chest, causing him to pull back from her.

"Jethro?" She began, he tried to stop her but she continued nonetheless. "I love you too. I always did. I always will." She smiled at him before pulling him back towards her to kiss him passionately again. The two stayed out for a long time talking and getting to know each other again. Gibbs insisted she stayed at his place as he burnt down her own house.

When the two finally got back to the bullpen they noticed that it was empty. Gibbs figured that McGee and Abby were in her lab, most likely making out or doing something he really didn't want to know about. It was unlike Ziva and Tony to be missing from their desks unless they were with Ducky or Abby themselves. He quickly checked by calling Autopsy and then the Lab, he found McGee with Abby. He then decided he had more pressing concerns than to find two wandering agents, it's not like they had work to do.

Tony and Ziva were actually in the NCIS building, after coming back up from Autopsy to tell Ducky the good news they had gotten distracted in the elevator and ended up making out again, this led to slightly more intricate actions which meant that the elevator had been out of service for sometime. When they eventually did come back up to the bullpen they found Gibbs sitting at his desk, Jenny was sitting on a chair on the other side and the two were both gripping cups of coffee and chatting jovially while gazing in to one another's eyes.

"Ahem. Hey Boss." Tony said in an attempt to hide his laughter and break the awkwardness of the moment. "Hey Jenny."

"Gibbs, Jenny." Jenny stood to hug her friend as she had greeted her, Ziva hugged her back and whispered something in her ear that sounded oddly like 'Good Luck' to Tony, but he didn't say anything. Jenny however laughed.

"So boss?" Tony started looking across at Gibbs from where Tony had just sat down at his desk.

"Yes DiNozzo?"

"Yanno, Abby and McGeek are getting hitched?"

"Yes I did DiNozzo."

"Right. Well, now that they singlehandedly shattered Rule Number twelve…" Tony left it an unspoken question.

"DiNozzo I think that if you ever hurt Ziva it should be what she does that you should be worried about, not what I do. Perhaps her brother you might want to worry about too." Gibbs said before walking out of the room taking Jenny's hand and taking her in to the back elevator. He kissed her on the cheek as they headed down to Autopsy to go visit Ducky.

In the bullpen Ziva grinned at Tony.

"He is right."

"What that if I hurt you you'll kill me?"

"No. You should be worried." She grinned in an evil manner before pulling her knife out of her pocket and began sharpening it. Tony looked at her as she watched him seductively.

"You do know that is incredibly hot right?" He muttered. She smiled again.

The elevator doors pinged open revealing the cold air of Autopsy to Jenny and Gibbs as they stepped out of the elevator. Gibbs walked through the doors first looking for Ducky, he found him quickly and the old man stepped forwards hopefully. Gibbs sidestepped Jenny and Ducky walked forwards and hugged her tightly.

"I am glad you are ok dear." He said, offering her some tea. She declined; drinking tea amidst decaying bodies was not her thing. Jenny and Gibbs managed to retell almost the past two years of Jenny's life, excluding the part where Ziva knew Jenny was alive. Jenny had put Ziva in an awful position and she should not make it worse. After telling Ducky everything the two of them headed up to find Abby to let her see Jenny for herself.

When the two of the stepped off in to Abby's lab they heard the blaring music and the second the lab doors whooshed open Abby pounced out at the former director pulling her in to a fierce embrace. Abby eventually relinquished her hold and Jenny and Gibbs had to tell Abby the story that had been retold so many times now Jenny was wishing she held a mass conference. By the time Jenny had gotten around half of the NCIS building word having gotten around she had faked her death and was back and had to tell every individual what had happened she was called up to see the director who wanted to quash the rumours more than accept them.

"Leon Vance." Jenny said as she entered. "Seat warm for you?" She asked politely.

"Jennifer Shepard? Seriously? You actually faked the entire thing?"

"Not as easy as it looked. Nor without its sorrows." She replied.

"The woman who took your place. Sister? Twin?"

"Cousin actually. She was dying and wanted to do it."

"You are here because?"

"Not for that chair Leon. I came here for something I should never have given up the first time I had it."

"Aaah, Agent Gibbs." Jenny nodded and Vance smiled at her relieved he would not have a power struggle on his hands.

"Good Luck Leon." Jenny said before turning around to exit the room.

"You two Jenny, Jethro Gibbs is a handful."

"Oh I can handle him." Jenny smiled.

* * *

_=] Hope you enjoyed that. xx_


	17. Wedding

_=] This is Chapter 016, and so if you haven't read Chapter 015 then go back -- and read it! It was Jenny meets Gibbs. This is a McAbby wedding! Whoot._

* * *

Chapter Sixteen.

Jenny had long since explained the reasoning's behind her disappearance and was still living with Gibbs. They had told the team that nothing was going on between them but Ziva had managed to get it out of Jenny, as difficult as that wasn't, and had 'accidentally' told Abby, who told McGee who told Tony. Tony got a head slap for his troubles as he had been the foolish one to congratulate Gibbs on his relationship.

The month had turned colder and sooner than they realised it was October. Abby had gone in to a mega panic on the first of October and had been running around the NCIS building ever since. Jenny had been upgraded from photograph to actual bridesmaid and Abby had forced her out with Ziva to go and get her dress fitted. Much to Jenny's surprise her dress was a wonderful light red, all the bridesmaid's dresses were.

"This is almost pink Abby. I was expecting something else."

"So was I. My dress is ivory so I wasn't expecting that!" Abby added grinning.

Her dress was indeed ivory; the bodice was a fitted corset style, strapless with a heart shaped bust. The skirt was short, flitting out in an A-line style but finishing just above her knees. There was a black ribbon tied around her waist with a bow tied securely at her left hip. There was a series of black and red beads sewn on to the dress, it made her dress glimmer and had just the right amount of Goth for her. She had picked out the perfect black heels and had found some black gloves to match perfectly.

The bridesmaids dresses were very simple three quarter sleeved, the top was off the shoulder. The skirt flowed straight on from the top and was made out of chiffon with lost of material in the skirt so when the bridesmaids walked their skirts would flow out behind them. Like Abby's dress the light red dresses ended just above their knees. Abby so far had five bridesmaids, Ziva, Jenny, Lissy, her sister Bella and her best friend out of NCIS Jazz.

The weeks in October flew by and soon enough it was October 31 a year to the day when McGee had first proposed. Abby woke up at Ziva's house where she had spent the night along with her sister, best friend and Jenny. She immediately jumped in to the shower when she woke not wanting to waste any time at all. Ziva and Lissy were already awake and were cooking breakfast in the kitchen. Both had already gotten showered and Lissy had a towel wrapped around her head, Ziva's hair was dangling across her back causing her tank top to get wet.

When Abby came downstairs half an hour later her hair also wrapped up in a towel and dressed in tracksuit bottoms and a rock band t-shirt her breakfast was waiting for her on the table. Ziva brought her and Lissy's breakfast in at the same time as Abby came in. Bella, Jazz and Jenny were already sat there eating away. Neither had had their showers yet and so had opted for breakfast before. They all smiled up at Abby when she came in. After breakfast when all the bridesmaids and Abby were fed and watered they all headed off to either get showered or to help Abby get ready. Lissy and Ziva were given the task of painting Abby's nails while the others showered.

"I'm so scared." Abby muttered, as Lissy hugged her.

"That's fine. As long as you want this then it's fine." Abby smiled and sat down on a chair facing a dressing table and mirror. Ziva and Lissy each grabbed one of her hands and grabbed a bottle of black nail polish each. Starting on getting Abby kitted out to get married to the love of her life.

By one o clock Abby was ready to go and four of the bridesmaids were waiting with her in the hallway of Ziva's house. When Ziva came down the stairs with Ben on one hip Abby squealed.

"Oooh he looks so cute in a suit!" Ziva smiled at Abby's comment, she had just been getting Ben dressed in a smart suit for going to the church, although it had taken her nearly half an hour to do so.

"Shall we go?" Jenny said taking Ben off Ziva as she picked up her keys and threw them in to her bag. Ziva walked out the door and held it open for Abby who stepped out to be faced with the black stretch limo that McGee had agreed to pick Abby up to get to the church. Abby's eyes lit up with excitement when she saw it. She turned to her bridesmaids looking at them in surprise, Ziva held her hands up.

"McGee." She stated, as she relieved Jenny of Ben and indicated to the Limo for them to get in to. Abby got in first immensely glad she was getting married that day. Within twenty minutes the limo pulled up outside of a large church and Bella leaned forwards and opened the door, she climbed out and was followed by Jenny, Lissy and then Jazz. Ziva was the last bridesmaid to get out and she first headed off towards the church doors. She slipped inside where Ducky was waiting.

"Here," She passed Ben over to him so he could watch him during the ceremony, "Tell Tim we will be there in a few minutes." Ducky nodded before carrying the small boy through to the main part of the church. Ziva walked back out of the church entrance to find Abby talking to the four bridesmaids. They all entered the church together and waited by the doorway. Ziva and Jenny were standing at the front ready to open the doors, Lissy and Bella were waiting behind the two of them and Jazz was at the side with Abby who was anxious to get in the room, Gibbs had appeared as well as Abby's father waiting to walk her down the aisle.

Jenny and Ziva opened a door each and walked in to the church, they each had a small bouquet of red and black roses. After a few seconds Lissy and Bella followed behind them, and shortly after that Jazz followed on her own. Abby came last, her right arm was hooked in her father's arm while her left was hooked through Gibbs. She was grinning from ear to ear when she walked down the aisle and her smile only grew larger when she set her eyes on her future husband.

When Abby reached the front Gibbs gave Abby's hand to Tim who took it gratefully and smiled at Gibbs who hastened to take a seat on the front row. Abby's father kissed her lightly on the cheek and followed Gibbs to his own seat. Abby turned to look at Tim who she kissed him gently on the lips before they both turned towards the minister.

"You look beautiful Abs." McGee whispered as the minister began reading to the church.

The two remained holding hands throughout the ceremony and when it came to giving their vows they had each written their own.

"Abby, ever since the first time I saw you I knew. I knew you was the most beautiful woman ever. I knew you would be the love of my life and I knew that one day I would be standing here, holding your hand," He squeezed her hand slightly as he said this, "marrying you. The only woman for me. I am yours, eternally."

"Timmy, my Timmy. You were always there for me, through everything, you protected me, gave me your shoulder to cry on and let me scream at you when I was angry. You were the person I would always turn to and the person I will always turn to. I owe everything to you and I will spend the rest of my life making you happy. I love you Tim." Abby whispered the last sentence.

Abby's parents were on the verge of tears as was Gibbs until Jenny nudged him and he blinked rapidly trying to prevent the tears flowing. The minister pronounced Abby and Tim husband and wife and the entire church erupted in applause and cat calls. The two of them shared a passionate kiss before heading down the aisle together.

"I love you Abby McGee." Tim said as they got in to the limo still waiting outside, the church having followed them outside.

"I love you more Tim." Abby replied kissing him again as the limo pulled away from the church to more cheering from the crowd. The limo pulled up a few minutes later outside of Abby and McGee's home so the two could quickly get changed and grab a suitcase ready for the honeymoon. When they arrived at the reception everybody was already there sat at the tables dotted around the room. Abby and Tim went up to the large table at the front and took the two seats in the middle, each of their parents were on the respective sides of the table with siblings next to them. There were about ten large round tables surrounding a large dance floor in the middle.

After a while when Tim and Abby had greeted their parents and settled in to their seats Tony stood up from his seat on the main table as Tim's best man and clinked his spoon on the side of his glass, in an attempt to get everybody's attention.

"Tim and Abby McGee." He held his glass out in front of him and everybody did the same thing. "Never thought I would see the day when Probie got hitched." He grinned at Tim who glared back at him as Abby smiled at them both. "I do know this though, nobody else would take him. No I'm joking, Abby and Tim love each other more than words can say, and it's obvious just from the way they look at each other. So I do believe without further ado I think it's time for the first dance for our lovely new couple!" Tony finished to a room of clapping as Abby and Tim stood up to head out to the dance floor.

"I could stay awake just to hear you breathing  
Watch you smile while you are sleeping  
While you're far away and dreaming  
I could spend my life in this sweet surrender  
I could stay lost in this moment forever  
Well, every moment spent with you  
Is a moment I treasure."

Tim took a hold of Abby's hand and spun her once as they got on to the dance floor. He pulled her close to him and wrapped one arm around her waist his other hand had Abby's hand securely fastened in it. The two slowly waltzed around the room keeping in time to the rhythm of the music. Towards the end of the song the two of them sped up slightly. When the song was over the hall erupted in cheers and as the next song came on several more people joined the couple on the dance floor.

"This was never the way I planned, not my intention  
I got so brave, drink in hand, lost my discretion  
It's not what, I'm used to, just wanna try you on  
I'm curious for you, caught my attention

I kissed a girl and I liked it  
The taste of her cherry chap stick  
I kissed a girl just to try it  
I hope my boyfriend don't mind it  
It felt so wrong  
It felt so right  
Don't mean I'm in love tonight  
I kissed a girl and I liked it."

Almost the entire room had gotten up at this point and climbed on to the large dance area. Even Jenny had persuaded Gibbs to get up and dance, Ziva was dancing with Ben and Tony while Lissy had found an unsuspecting boy from Tim's side of the family and pressured him in to dancing with her.

After several more songs the food started to be brought out and everybody quickly shuffled back to their tables incredibly hungry and anxious for food. When the team had all settled back in to their chairs and the starter was served Tony leaned across to Tim and whispered;

"Isn't the food meant to come before the dancing?"

"Abby wanted to dance and then eat. She figured it would be more comfortable." Tony grinned and shook his head as Abby attempted to join in the conversation most likely with some scientific fact based on exercising after eating. The rest of the meal passed by with a gentle chatter and several glasses of wine. The wedding party got up to dance for a while and soon enough every single person was dancing, not necessarily on the dance floor, several very drunk members of Abby's family began dancing on the tables.

When it came time to ship Abby and Tim off on their romantic honeymoon to Hawaii, to an incredibly expensive honeymoon sweet in a very expensive hotel. Tony had been incredibly interested as to find out how much Tim's book had actually fetched him but he refused to divulge. Abby had gone around the entire hall hugging everybody even those she didn't know. The bridesmaids, the NCIS team and her parents got an extra hug each. Eventually the two of them got in to the limo jetting off to their honeymoon in Hawaii. The crowds outside cheered as they left and then as the limo pulled off at the end of the road they all headed back in side to make the most of the alcohol and dance floor.

"I can't believe we're married Timmy."

"I love you more Mrs McGee." Tim added kissing Abby as she smiled at her new name.


	18. Missions

_Hey. I'm totaly overloaded with work at the moment. But I'm going to really try to reply to any reviews ok? I'll keep updating regularly or as regularly as I can. xx Thanks Hope you enjoy this! ^^_

_P.S. I have the storyline for the sequel set up, It's going to be forever until I write it though. Bear with me, there is still another 4 or 5 chapters of this left! ^^_

* * *

Chapter Seventeen

"Welcome back Abby!" Ziva greeted when she walked in to the lab two weeks in to November, her friend's first day back at work after her two week honeymoon. When Tim had entered the bullpen she greeted him before heading down to see his wife.

"How was Hawaii?"

"Actually it was a bit cold." Ziva laughed.

"It is November Abby." Abby nodded turning to the doorway as she heard the elevator bleep. She watched as Tony and Tim himself came out, Tim and Abby smiled lovingly at each other before Abby hugged Tony tightly.

"Hey Tony. Did you miss me?"

"Sure Abs, I missed the asphyxiation." He mumbled out as she relinquished her hold on him smiling at him. Abby walked over to Tim and hugged him even though they had only seen each other a few minutes ago when he left her in her lab.

"Get a room." Tony mocked as Abby pecked Tim on the cheek, both Abby and Ziva hit him on the chest and he yelped. "What?" He grinned.

"They have one, Gibbs will be wondering where we are, we should be going. Glad you are back Abby, Tim." Ziva said before dragging Tony over to the elevator leaving Tim and Abby alone in her lab.

When the two of them got back up to the bullpen they noticed Gibbs talking with Director Vance, they walked over towards their desks but Gibbs stopped them.

"Where's McGee?" He asked.

"Hawaii?" Tony attempted to answer. He got a slap on the back of his head for trying to be clever.

"His bag is by his desk. Ziva, Where?"

"Abby's lab." She answered sitting down at her desk. She picked her phone up and dialled the short cut for the lab. "Abby? Need McGee. Tim, Abby, not you." She smiled as Abby asked her which McGee. Within a few minutes Tim had arrived in the bullpen Director Vance and Agent Gibbs asked him to accompany them upstairs to Vance's office.

"Why do they want to speak to McMarried?"

"Gibbs will probably be castrating him or threatening to in case he hurts Abby." Ziva answered not looking up from her computer screen.

Up in the director's office Tim was being briefed on a new case which would require him going on an undercover mission for NCIS.

"Why me?" Tim asked.

"Agent McGee you are the best person for this job. Do you know what ATCW is?"

"Advanced Technical Computer Weaponry? That's real? I thought it was made up, a program that can target a satellite and cause it to deflect all signals directly back through the ATCW system?"

"Yes, although it can also get complete control over a satellite undetected. It can be used to infiltrate almost any program on this Earth. If this program gets in to the wrong hands there is pretty much no hope."

McGee nodded, slightly confused as to how such an important piece of equipment could get in to the wrong hands.

"One of the technical programmers went missing last week. He was found dead on a navy base two days ago. I have managed to persuade the CIA, FBI and SecNav that we should have this case. So you had better show them what damn good agents we have here."

"What do I have to do?"

"You're doing what?" Abby screamed.

"Breath Abby, It's fine. I'll be back soon I promise."

"It's not fine! The new director is going to get you killed. You can't just walk in to the middle of a terrorist party! It's crazy, send Tony, send Ziva! She could kill them all single handed."

"Neither of them understands the technology though. Its pretty complex Abs. Besides Ziva is coming as my right hand woman, to make sure I don't get in too deep. Don't panic, I love you." He kissed her on the head and hugged her tightly.

"Simple, we get in find the killer shoot him and get out. Shouldn't take long."

"No, you will not be shooting anybody Officer David. You go in, find out whom if anybody has the technology find out if it is the right thing. Then you contact us and Vance will tell you how to proceed next, got it?" The two nodded although Ziva's was reluctant.

Timothy McGee was currently dressed in a smart dress suit he had a gun concealed in a holster under his arm whilst Ziva was wearing smart trousers and a sweater, she had two guns concealed in their normal places with two knives also concealed in their normal places. The two of them got in to a car, Tony was driving in the front he had a gun at his waist although that was more out of habit then necessity, his job was to merely drop the pair off at the site and leave.

When they got to the meeting point McGee and Ziva exited the car sharpish and Tony swiftly drove off parking his car two blocks away and heading in to an apartment building where there was a room set up with surveillance equipment, Gibbs would be meeting him there in a few minutes, having tailed Tony from NCIS. He walked over to a telescope and pointed it at the meeting point Ziva was leaning against the wall of a building studying the three men talking to McGee who was deep in conversation with the terrorists.

After a few minutes Gibbs showed up and took his own telescope, he turned to tony he passed him a headset so he could listen to the conversation McGee was having with the terrorists.

"How do I know it is real? I shall not buy anything faked." They heard McGee say.

"It is real, you may check it if you wish."

"Yes, I will want to. When?"

"Now?" One of the men said and the other two nodded. They walked off towards one of the buildings and McGee followed, Ziva caught up with McGee and entered the building with him. Gibbs and Tony both moved their eyes away from the telescopes and tuned in to the headset they was wearing, and turning to the laptop on the table where a GPS tracking dot inserted in McGee's ankle at Abby's demand was bleeping away.

"This is it? Are you sure?" They heard McGee say. Followed by something that neither Gibbs nor Tony could speak, this was when they relied on Ziva's language skills. Sure enough it was a language she spoke as her voice came over the headpiece next saying something in the same language.

"You speak Arabic?" One of the men said, it was replied by a short yes. "You are not Muslim." Tony and Gibbs looked at each other slightly regretting sending Ziva in there.

"No. That does not mean I cannot speak the language." The man turned away and whispered something to one of the other men in the room who turned his gaze to Ziva and kept it there. The original man turned back to McGee who was busy typing away on the laptop he had been offered.

"Well? Are you interested?"

"Very. May I ask why you are selling it and not using it yourselves?"

"We do not have the capabilities to use it to its full potential. We want it used to bring down America. Do we have a deal?"

"I will have to consider this, the price is high and I do not wish to get in to unnecessary debt." McGee smiled acting cool. He headed out of the building followed by Ziva and the two hailed a cab.

"That was the shortest meeting and quickest exit ever McGee." Ziva muttered as they got in to the cab. McGee smiled as he pulled out his cell phone.

"Hey Boss, its fake. What does Vance want us to do?"

"Stick this out, he wants to know at least what's going on, who's in charge etc."

"Got it boss." McGee said before hanging up the phone. He gave the cab driver directions to a hotel a few blocks from where they were and the driver sped off. Within a few minutes the two of them were secured in the hotel and McGee had been on the phone to Abby for over an hour, Ziva had gotten showered and changed and was laid on the bed she pulled her own phone out and dialled her home number, it was getting late and she had not seen her son since that morning.

Eventually after another hour of phone calls the two of them both lay down on the bed staring up at the ceiling. McGee had received a call from the terrorists telling him that he had until tomorrow to accept the deal if not it was off. McGee had forwarded this information on to Gibbs who told him to accept the offer, it was the only thing to do to remain in contact with the terrorists.

The following day McGee and Ziva were up early, the two showered and dressed in silence both wanted to be at home with those they missed. Ziva had rarely been apart from her son so much and the first thing she had done when she awoke at 5.30 was to call Darren and ask how he was, he was needless to say not happy at being woken up so early. Abby had called at 6.00 waking McGee up although he didn't mind at hearing his love's voice.

By 8.30 the two were out of the house and began the walk around to the meeting place which was a small cafeteria not far from their hotel. The two of them arrived before either of their terrorist 'friend' arrived. They both ordered coffee's and sat down at a table in the back, both were bugged and McGee's GPS chip was still actively sending out signals both to Abby's and McGee's laptop that was in the custody of Tony at the moment.

After ten minutes John Smith walked in to the café they recognised him as the leader of the group. He had been the one to tell the other men what to do and he had the body language of somebody with power. When he walked in he headed straight for McGee and Ziva, picking up a coffee from the desk as he went.

"Good morning Mr Robinson, Ms Evans." The man greeted them before taking a seat opposite McGee, next to Ziva who subtly moved away from him slightly. He smiled at McGee.

"You have made a decision Mr Robinson?"

"Yes, to buy. Lillia?" He turned to Ziva who pushed the briefcase they had brought with them towards him. McGee picked it up and placed it on the table he flipped it open revealing the several hundreds of notes stacked neatly inside it. He closed the suitcase and placed it on the floor.

"The program?" McGee demanded and the man picked up a large box he had carried in with him, inside was a laptop that he powered up and revealed the program to McGee who quickly flipped through it before powering down the laptop and placing it back in the briefcase. He nodded and the two of them swiftly traded suitcases. The man exited swiftly and McGee and Ziva watched as he got in to a large black van that just pulled up.

McGee pulled out his cell, dialling Gibbs number.

"He has the money, is the bug working?" He asked referring to the three bugs he had placed on the briefcase and inside with the money.

"Yeah Abby is following them now." McGee nodded.

"What do we do now Boss?" McGee asked.

"Sit tight, head back to the hotel and we'll talk from there."

"Got it Boss."

McGee stood up and indicated for Ziva to do the following, they both walked away from their table towards the door. However before they could get anywhere near the door a large explosion rocked the floor beneath their feet and Ziva and McGee felt themselves get lifted off the floor and thrown in to the air.

A black van pulled back up outside of the café, several men got out and ran in to the café. They found what they were looking for and took it without hesitating. They lift, and nobody would know they had even been there.

* * *


	19. Lost Love

_Bit of a short one this one. =] Hope you enjoy it. And omg, there is like one whole line/sentence devoted to Jibbs. Lol. Seriously, just a line. =]_

* * *

Chapter Eighteen

The first thing Ziva remembered was waking up on an operating table, several doctors were running around over her and she attempted to move, she had to get up. She had no idea what happened and needed to find out. A nurse saw her moving and told the doctor who injected something in to her arm and she felt her eyes droop. She tried to fight the sensation taking over her but she couldn't and she drifted off in to unconsciousness.

Outside in the waiting room, Darren and Lissy were pacing around while Tony held Ben as his only comfort. Abby was hysterical as nobody seemed to be able to find Tim and his GPS locator had died. When another person was rushed through past her in to surgery she looked up hoping to find him yet dreading that it was. It wasn't. Gibbs had arrived with the team but had left to check out the café, he wanted to find a clue as to where McGee had gone but there was nothing; even the briefcase had been left behind.

Gibbs eventually made his way back to hospital to find Abby in an even worse state than she had been before. She ran at Gibbs when she saw him enter the waiting room anxious for news as to McGee's whereabouts. He shook his head as he got closer to her and she collapsed in a fresh wave of tears on the floor. She didn't even know if he was alive or dead. The authorities had informed them that there had been several people so close to the source of the explosion there was virtually nothing left.

Other the next few hours as more people were identified it became more likely that Timothy McGee was at the source of the explosion. Abby had eventually cried herself to sleep on one of the white plastic chairs; her head was rested on Ducky's lap her feet curled up underneath her. Gibbs was sat on the other side of Ducky his eyes were closed and his head was tilted backwards. Darren and Lissy were sat silently staring in to nothing while Ben slept in Darren's arms. Tony was sat next to Gibbs and was staring at everything and waiting for Ziva's doctor to give them any news.

After a while a doctor came in to the waiting room and glanced around he walked further in to the room and coughed.

"Family for Ziva David?" He announced, Tony and Darren both rose from their chairs and walked towards the doctor. Lissy had taken a hold of Ben as Darren stood up and was now watching Tony, Darren and the doctor talk.

"Miss David is out of surgery during the blast she suffered some internal damage. We managed to stop all internal bleeding and she is resting comfortably in a private room, you may visit her individually if you wish. Although it is best they are short visits. She is currently heavily sedated and will remain so for a few hours yet." Tony and Darren nodded and both walked back to where the rest of the team. Darren went to go and visit Ziva while Tony told the team what he knew of Ziva's condition.

Within the next few hours the team waited for Ziva to awaken so that they could question her as to Tim's whereabouts during the explosion. When she did awake Gibbs was the first person to talk to her.

"How do you feel?"

"Fine, How Is Tim?"

"We aren't sure. Can I ask you a few questions?"

"About?"

"Where Tim was when you was in the café. Behind you, in front of you or about the same place?"

"In front of me, I was following him out. The explosion came from somewhere in front of us though. What do you mean you don't know how he is? Wasn't he brought in with me; he was closer to the door they would have found him first surely?"

"They can't find his body-"

"Body!? He isn't dead, he can't be. We was close to each other if he died I should have died also." As she said this Ziva's heart monitor started to bleep rapidly and Gibbs stood up to try to calm her down. When a nurse and doctor ran in to her room Gibbs was ushered out as they gave Ziva more medication to calm her down. Gibbs returned to the waiting room where Abby jumped out at him.

"What did she say? Did she see him?"

"She doesn't know, she said he was close by her when the bomb went off, he was walking just ahead of her but that he wouldn't have been much more injured than her. There would have definitely have been a body if he was …" Gibbs trailed off. Abby sighed; she had long since cried herself dry.

"So what happened? Where is he?"

"I don't know. We will just have to keep a look out for him. Ralph's team are processing the scene. When we get the report we can check it to look for clues ok Abs?" Abby nodded and returned to her seat.

The next few hours passed by silently, after Gibbs had been kicked out of Ziva's room the doctor returned and told them that only family would be allowed to see her for the next 24 hours. The NCIS team had all returned to the office at that point when Darren promised he would call with an update every three hours.

Abby had refused to go down to her lab, instead she had sat down at her husbands desk and fallen asleep, after wrapping herself up in the spare shirt he had in his drawer. Tony sat at his own desk and pulled up a report he was working on before he got the call out to Bethesda. He could not however stop glancing across at Ziva's desk, missing the fact she was not there.

After several hours of meaningless work, or sleep in Abby's case, Ralph Higgins walked in to the bullpen with a sad look on his face. He glanced around and his eyes rested on Agent Gibbs' desk. He walked towards him and Gibbs straightened up as Ralph approached.

"Agent Gibbs, I've got some bad news. A local hospital just rang, say they got a man brought in a few hours ago who had been wandering around on the streets said he was in pretty bad shape. Apparently he was a match to your missing agent. Agent Timothy McGee?"

"Which hospital?" Gibbs almost yelled as Abby awoke and looked eagerly up at Gibbs and Higgins.

"Sorry, Gibbs, he died in theatre. They sent DNA samples to prove he is your agent. They seemed to suggest it was hard to tell who it was. Face covered in cuts and if they hadn't of found his drivers licence in his back pocket they wouldn't have known who he was." Gibbs looked shocked at this news.

Abby however took it worse; she collapsed down on to the floor and was overcome with a new wave of tears. She barely noticed when Tony walked up behind her and put his arm over her shoulders pulling her on to him to hug her while her heart was shattering. She sobbed uncontrollably in to Tony's shoulder for over an hour, while Gibbs took Higgins down to Abby's lab while with the aide of Ducky to prove whether or not the samples match Tim.

The three of them eventually managed to figure out how to analyse DNA, well, Ducky did having had a crash course in Forensics by Abby she had taught him which machine did what and had given him instructions on how to work the machines as well. The three sat in Abby's lab waiting for the results to come back for a long time. Eventually a name and picture flashed up on Abby's screen accompanied by a loud bleeping noise.

Gibbs and Higgins both turned to look at the screen only to see the name and picture they really didn't wish to see. Special Agent Timothy McGee. Gibbs sighed and kicked the stand in the middle of the room where the computer sat. He stormed out of the lab and ran up the stairs Higgins turned to Ducky and raised his eyebrows.

"I would leave him young man. I would wait a while and take the elevator. Go back to your investigation; find out who planted the bomb. Find out who did this, if not for your life," Ducky implied Gibbs wrath would stretch to Higgins and his team if they did not succeed in finding the suicide bomber, "but for the young girl up there who has just lost her husband." Higgins nodded and hastened towards the elevator.

Gibbs ran up the stairs as fast as he could and burst out on to the landing which housed the Director's office. He stormed down the balcony and walked straight in to the office, Cynthia didn't even bother to stop him she had heard the news about the mission going awry. Gibbs slammed the door open so hard it made an indentation on the wall of his office. The Director glanced up from his desk and scowled at Gibbs who marched over to the desk and slammed his fist down on the table so hard it rattled and the paper floated away from the point of contact.

"You killed one of my agents Vance."

"It was a mission Gibbs; I did not plant the bomb. I did not kill my agent."

"You shouldn't have ever let McGee take the job, he only just got back from his honeymoon and you sent him on a bleeding suicide mission!? Are you crazy?" Gibbs yelled in Vance's face.

"Jethro?" A voice came from the doorway and Gibbs turned to see Jenny leaning against the wall, she was holding Ben in her arms. "I just came from the hospital; Ziva is awake and wants to know if you have any more news from McGee. Darren asked if I would watch Ben for him."

"McGee is dead Jen. Vance got him blown up." Gibbs spat before turning on his heel and marching out of the office pulling a shocked Jenny with him. Vance collapsed back in his chair placing his hands over his eyes. Perhaps Gibbs had been right that it was too soon he should have sent another agent one with more experience in the field but still have a grounding in computers. It wouldn't have been that hard to find one. But McGee was the best, they all new it.

Jenny stormed after Gibbs when he left the room, she wanted him to turn around and tell him it was a lie. McGee could not be dead; she had not been dead when they all believed her to be so, and however she had wanted everybody to believe she was dead. She wanted a new life and yet she came back to her old one, she had come back to lose a friend. She slowed down as the thought struck her and almost psychically Gibbs noticed and slowed down as well before turning around to face her.

He smiled and walked towards her he held out his hand and cupped her face with it and she leaned in to his touch. She shut her eyes as he stepped closer to her and she allowed a single tear to fall.

"You would have made a great mom you know?" He whispered before kissing her. She smiled in to his touch, in to his lips.


	20. So Long Timmy

_Oh My God. It's been a week. I totally fail I know but I forgot totally well and truly forgot. Sorry sorry sorry. Sorry again, I make you wait a week then give you a funeral. I got distracted by college work and Farscape. =[ Sorry again! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

* * *

Chapter Nineteen.

"Trouble is her only friend and he's back again  
Makes her body older than it really is  
And she says it's high time she went away  
No ones got much to say in this town  
Trouble is the only way is down, down, down."

Abby slowly walked behind Gibbs, Tony, Jimmy Palmer and Jared McGee as they carried a casket on their shoulders. She allowed the tears to spill down her cheeks as she realised she would never be able to hear his voice again, never be able to hug him again, never have somebody to talk computer speak with. She was alone.

Sarah McGee walked besides Abby; the two were holding hands as they had become incredibly close since Tim and Abby got engaged. Sarah had assisted in most aspects of the wedding although she had declined being a bridesmaid, saying that was for the brides' friends and family. Now Sarah was remembering all the wonderful things her brother had done for her. He had offered to give up his job at NCIS to protect her. Tears full of memory splashed down Sarah's cheeks.

"As strong as you were  
Tender you go  
I'm watching you breathing  
For the last time  
A song for your heart  
But when it is quiet  
I know what it means  
And I'll carry you home  
I'll carry you home."

Tony wriggled slightly under the coffin; it was not heavy for him. Nothing he could not handle anyway. The knowledge of what lay inside the coffin was penetrating his mind. He was trying to push the last few weeks from memory. The pain everybody endured not knowing, and then having all of their hopes crushed. Tony would never wish to admit it, but he had loved Tim, he loved him like his brother. He treated him as a younger brother and he would remember him as his younger brother. Tony formed the link in his mind and smiled knowing he had had the best brother in the world.

Looking across the coffin Gibbs saw how Tony smiled to himself, and Gibbs acknowledged the fat his team were closer than he thought. He, himself, considered them his extended family, his illegitimate children, his beloved Jenny and his brother or Uncle Ducky. They all had their places; Tony would be the eldest, then Ziva, Tim and Abby. He was surprised sometimes at how much he did care for them; he had been surprised at how hard Tim's death had hit him. He turned once more to face ahead of himself and sighed trying to contain the grief of losing a child.

"If she had wings she would fly away  
And another day god will give her some  
Trouble is the only way is down, down, down."

Ziva shifted Ben to her other hip as she followed at the back of the funeral procession. She was lagging behind somewhat, not wishing to watch Tim being put under ground. She believed it was her fault; she had been there and was raised in Israel. She should have known something would happen and she should have gotten Tim out quicker or noticed there was a bomb or… she recalled the day. There would have been no way she could have noticed a bomb until it went off, she had not been looking for or expecting a bomb. She knew there was nothing she could have done, yet she still couldn't bring herself to follow the procession. She walked towards a bench and sat down; she placed Ben on the ground and allowed herself the time to reflect on her memories of Timothy McGee, he who had been the first to accept her and the last to judge. A true friend.

"As strong as you were  
Tender you go  
I'm watching you breathing for the last time  
A song for your heart  
But when it is quiet  
I know what it means  
I'll carry you home  
I'll carry you home."

The old man pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket as he watched the four men lowering the coffin on to the chassis. Tears were threatening to spill out of his eyes, he had been to his fair amount of funerals in his lifetime yet they never got easier. He stared around the crowd and found the girl he was looking for; he made his way towards her. She looked so lost and Ducky felt he should be comforting her she had after all lost her husband. He reached Abby and pulled her in to a hug, and she fell limply against him, his heart broke for the child and a tear finally escaped his eye. A tear for those left behind.

Leroy Jethro Gibbs rejoined the crowd and instantly grabbed the hand of his lover. She squeezed his hand tightly as more tears spilt over her cheeks. The guilt over what she had done consumed her, she had faked her death and come back and this man had left the world, he had left his wife and he had left his family. He had had no choice. She stared around the crowd she looked at all of Tim's relatives. All she saw was people. Normal people who have lost their Son, Brother, Cousin, Nephew all because he had joined the same career as she had. She took a deep breath to control her thoughts and felt as Gibbs released his hold on her hand and wrapped it around her shoulders; it was a normal mundane gesture. Though she knew it meant one thing. Forgiveness.

"And they're all born pretty  
in New York City tonight  
and someone's little girl  
was taken from the world tonight  
under the Stars and Stripes."

"As strong as you were  
Tender you go  
I'm watching you breathing for the last time  
A song for your heart  
But when it is quiet  
I know what it means  
And I'll carry you home."

Abby stared around at her friends and family. She watched as they worked through the grief. She watched as they worked through the guilt. And she watched as they tried to let go. She turned to Ducky, who was gripping her left hand tightly, and then to Sarah who was gripping her other hand just as tightly. She squeezed them back. She would be OK. She had to be ok. She had her family, all of them. She felt the breeze rush through her hair and she felt stronger, she felt as though Tim was holding her up, keeping her strong. Protecting her always. Loving her always. Like she would love him always. She felt her final tears glide down her cheeks. She didn't wipe them away, she let them fall, proud to have been able to know and love the man she had lost.

"As strong as you were  
Tender you go  
I'm watching you breathing for the last time  
A song for your heart  
But when it is quiet  
I know what it means  
And I'll carry you home

I'll carry you home."


	21. Abby Hears a Who?

_Oh My Gosh, this my dear friends is the penultimate chapter. Aren't you excited? =] Sorry its been a while, I'm really not on top of this at the moment, not that its that difficult to post a bit of text but I seem to have not been online much in the past few weeks. So yeah, sorry xxx_

* * *

Chapter Twenty.

2009 suddenly became 2010 and the team barely noticed, since Tim McGee had passed every day had become slow and laborious. They had barely noticed what an impact he had on the team before he was gone. Abby had been given six weeks bereavement leave yet she had barely taken five days. Tony, Ziva, Gibbs , Jenny and Ducky were slowly becoming more concerned about her as she spent most of her days and several nights in her office, working on things even they did not know about.

It was not until the second Tuesday in January did the team realise that something had to be done. Tony had gone to visit the lab to deposit some evidence for Abby to process and he heard her talking he figured she was talking to her machines as usual and continued his way towards the door. As the door was just about to open did he hear a name he was not expecting? Timmy. He hadn't heard anybody say it in a long time; Abby was the only person he ever allowed to call him that.

When Tony walked in to the room and deposited the evidence box he glanced around looking to see if Abby had been talking to a photo of her late husband or …

A mop. She had converted mop Ziva in to a mop McGee. Tony blinked when he saw it and cleared his throat. Abby looked up at him and titled her head slightly to one side in a questioning manner.

"Abby, that's not healthy." Abby had returned to her work.

"What's not?" She asked as she wandered off to one of her many machines.

"The mop McGee."

"Oh. Well when you lose the love of your life, you tell me what's healthy." Abby's tone of voice was clearly screaming at Tony to vacate the room and he did so sharpish.

Abby waited until he was gone before letting out the breath she had been holding in. With it she let the tears shimmy down her face once more. She slid to the ground overcome with the loss of her husband, the one person she had felt able to get close to and love. The only person she would ever marry. The only person she had ever foreseen herself having a family with and now they had both lost that. Circumstance had removed all happiness from her life.

"It wasn't circumstance," she finally said out loud, "it was Vance." Abby spat with name with venom, realising all her frustration and anger out in that one word. She picked up a test tube and threw it across the room allowing it to shatter against the wall, leaving a pile of shattered glass underneath it. She threw another test tube, and then a beaker and she followed this off with a rather expensive microscope. She went to pick up the next thing that came to her hand only to find it was a box of latex gloves.

"Gloves? No pleasure comes from throwing gloves at a wall." She muttered as she placed the box on the table and extracted two gloves from the box. "Fate seems to want me to work."

"Not fate Abby. I want you to work." Gibbs had entered her lab; she had not heard the elevator or the doors opening and was rather startled to see him standing there.

"I don't have anything for you Gibbs, I was just …"

"Breaking NCIS property?" He mocked looking pointedly at the pile of shattered glass littering the skirting of the far wall. Abby followed his gaze and sighed.

"I'll clean it later." She shrugged it off. Abby walked around the bench and began siphoning off samples and placing them in small tubes to be placed in her mass spectrometer. Gibbs watched her for a while as she worked.

"What?" She asked a little harsher than necessary, Gibbs didn't retaliate instead he walked over to her stool and sat down, continuing to watch her. "I can't work if you are here Gibbs."

"Then don't work. You should have taken six weeks leave. You were back at work by the middle of November."

"Six weeks has gone. It's the 12th of January Gibbs. He died on the fourth of November. Over two months ago, so six weeks has long since gone."

"Doesn't matter, I'll make Vance give you the time off. You need to heal Abby, talking to a mop is not healing. You need to grieve and you can't do that here, when everything reminds you of him."

There was silence for a while as Abby took in deep breaths to attempt at calming herself. It was a while before she spoke again.

"Home reminds me of him more." She whispered, hoping Gibbs could understand her desire to avoid the place where she had been the most happy, in the home the two of them had bought three months before their wedding. Where they had spent but a few nights before Tim was called away on a mission, before he was gone from her life forever.

When Gibbs heard what she said he walked silently over to her and pulled her towards himself. He wrapped his arms around her back and held her tightly to him as she collapsed against him. She mumbled something in to his chest but he couldn't figure out what she said before he felt her body shake as she was overcome with more tears.

"I miss him Gibbs." She whispered after a few minutes of crying. He squeezed her and she clung on to the front of his jacket like a small baby. "I don't know what to do." She whimpered and every time he held her all the tighter.

"You start with not talking to a mop. Here," he separated himself from Abby and walked to her bench. He returned clutching a paper and a wad of paper. "Write down what you want to tell him." She looked up at him with a bemused expression on her face.

"I did it when I lost Shannon and Kelly."

"It helped?"

"I'm not sure; I was on pretty strong pain medication." Abby chuckled at this, knowing he had been in an explosion yet she was sure he had said it to make her laugh. His smile cemented this thought and she regressed to a sad sigh.

"I write him a letter? Then burn it? Bin it? Post it to a person I don't know?"

"Keep it. Words can trap the love our hearts feel." Abby raised her eyebrows at Gibbs sentimental comment. "Repeat that Abby, and I swear I will break your mass spectrometer." Gibbs smiled as she smiled back at him. He slowly retreated out of the lab leaving the grieving Goth alone with her thoughts.

'Write him a letter? Saying what?' she thought, 'feelings? I guess so, okay, lets start this.'

'Dear Timmy,  
This is such a formal way to start a letter to a deceased person but I can't believe you are really gone. It feels like at any moment I could whip around and there you will be standing next to my desk. Or just getting out of the shower after a long hard day at work. Gibbs told me I should write things down instead of talking to a mop with your picture on. I think I prefer the mop.

You should have known all of this anyway, but Gibbs told me to write it and so I will. Timothy McGee you was, are and always will be the one and only love of my life. If you could feel how much I really do love you it would probably surprise you, it surprised me. Losing you was the most horrible pain I could ever imagine going through. I wish I had never lost you, I wish with every fibre of my being you were still here, standing besides me. 

But your not and never will be. So perhaps Gibbs is right, perhaps Tony and Ziva are right. Perhaps Ducky is right. Perhaps I should learn to live again. It's bowling night tonight and I haven't been bowling since before the wedding. I do miss Sisters Agnes and Moira; I haven't been able to beat my high score. 

Thank you Timmy, Gibbs was right as usual, writing a note does help. I love you with all my heart.

Abby McGee.'

Abby smiled to herself as she signed the note with her name. She had somehow put the pen to the paper and allowed herself to write whatever came to mind, and she had ended up coming up with an answer to the question she had been seeking. Should she be living her own life whilst Tim could no longer live his? She knew now how he had always gone out of his way to make sure she remained happy and content. He would have lain down his life for her and she knew it.

He would never want her to be sad he always enjoyed her company and loved her when she was happy and excited. Abby walked over to her desk, slipped on her coat while carefully locking the letter in her desk drawer she grabbed some change from her purse and headed out.

She arrived back in her lab in ten minutes carrying in one hand a half eaten muffin she had been chomping on as she walked back from the shop and in her other hand her favourite over-sized drink. She set the caf-pow on her work bench as she walked through her lab in to her office space. She continued to eat her muffin as she emptied the remaining change back in to her purse, before dropping it over the back of her chair behind her desk. She walked back out of her office discarding the empty muffin wrapper in the bin as she walked past it.

She grabbed her caf-pow and made her way towards the pile of evidence cluttering the table top in the middle of her lab. She took a quick swill and began rummaging through the evidence boxes to find something to plug in to her mass spec to work away on while she worked on something else in the mean time. She settled on a weird purple powder which looked interesting enough. Abby retrieved a small sample and switched her machine on before dropping in her sample. Once she had set the mass spectrometer to work she began sorting out hair and fibre samples from the tee-shirt Tony had left her.

Abby continued to work in silence humming gently to herself for several long minutes before she stopped to think.

"I can't think it's too quiet." She said to herself out loud. She glanced towards her stereo; she hadn't played any of her own music since Tim had died. Since Tim had left really she had taken to playing his music and it stuck with her for a long time afterwards. Now however she felt in the mood for some death metal music and so walked towards her stereo and switched the discs. She pressed play and felt rather than heard her traditional head splittingly loud music blaring out from the speakers.

Abby grinned as she turned away from her stereo she felt normal again. Not healed, she still hurt inside more than she could have ever imagined but the outside was getting there. She bobbed her head in time to the tunes as she went back towards her workbench pulling out another fibre and placing it carefully in a test tube. She continued in this manner for nearly an hour before Gibbs returned to see her.

"Anything Abs?" He barely contained his smile as she looked up at him.

"Yeah, got some hairs on this shirt Tony brought me match a Willow Turner. She is a twenty-seven year old prostitute working the red light district near the Norfolk Naval Base. She has a partner a Cindy something. Couldn't find a surname, sorry Gibbs."

"You did good Abs."

"There's more!" She stopped him as he walked out of the lab. "The purple stuff? It's quite weird it was cocaine but to try to conceal it its been mixed with Red Cedar root. Which is a type of tree and the root is used to make a natural dye, purple. It was obvious a method of disguising the drugs so he could get them to wherever he wanted them to be."

Abby turned around to find Gibbs had left, she wrinkled her nose up and headed back off towards her computer where she was busy trying to find Cindy's last name. She typed away for a few minutes before the phone rang in her office. It took a couple of rings before Abby heard it. She quickly ran off towards her office.

"Abby McGee - NCIS Forensic Specialist."

"Abby?"

Abby's eyes widened as she heard a voice that sounded oh so familiar. Before she could say another word she hit the floor of her office in a dead faint, the receiver of the phone dangling off the edge of the table by the cord. A male voice shouting Abby's name in to the silent room.


	22. Forever

_Last chapter. =] There is a sequel in the making, but I'm failing at writing it at the moment. It's gonna be a while. I know whats going to happen mind you. All plotted out, so I'll give an ickle taster. Somebody dies. =]_

_Aw, last update.I hate when things end, good or bad. Lol. Not sure if this was good or bad, you tell me? =] Until next time. xxx_

_

* * *

_

Chapter Twenty-One

Abby was still laid on the floor when Ziva walked in to her lab. Ziva had come to help Abby with her work as Tony and Gibbs had left to check out a suspect and Ziva had gotten bored with computer work. Agent Lee would pick up the slack anyway, she always did more than necessary to ensure Gibbs didn't get pissed off. When Ziva walked in however she found that the lab was apparently empty. Ziva walked around the island which housed Abby's computers and glanced around the lab. When she glanced towards the office space beyond Abby's lab she believed this was empty as well. She walked towards it to check.

"Abby are you in here?" Ziva called out as she walked towards the doors. It took her a split second between seeing Abby on the floor and kneeling down beside her. She took her hand and felt for a pulse, after finding a rapidly beating flutter she pressed a hand to Abby's forehead. Normal temperature, so Ziva spoke loudly to try and rouse Abby from her concussed state.

"Ziva?" She murmured after a few seconds of attempted arousal. Abby attempted to sit up and as she did so saw the phone hanging off the edge of her desk, Abby flew towards it knocking Ziva off her feet as she flung her arm out to aide her in her movement. Ziva landed back on the floor with a thud as Abby grasped at the telephone receiver.

"Timmy!?" She yelled down the phone. "Timmy? Where are you?" Ziva's expression flew to alarm at the point at which Abby spoke McGee's name. Ziva had wondered why Abby had flung herself towards the phone and she now knew that she believed she heard her late husband.

"Abby? Timmy isn't there." Abby glared at Ziva at her comment, pressing the receiver further in to her ear. The dialling tone now present as opposed to the voice she longed to hear. "When Tali died, I saw her everywhere. I once ran after a little girl in a supermarket because I thought it was her."

"Really? I'm not going mad? I really thought it was him Zee. I mean, I fainted, I really really thought it was him." Abby collapsed back against her desk, causing it to move several inches across the floor. Abby held the phone to her chest refusing to let her hope die. Ziva crawled towards her and wrapped an arm around Abby albeit rather forcefully. Abby smiled up at her and leant her head back against the desk closing her eyes as she did so.

Abby eventually dozed off in to a dreamless doze with Ziva's arm wrapped around her shoulders now much more relaxed. Ziva looked at Abby and attempted to pry the phone out of her grip. Just as Ziva dropped the receiver on to the base as quietly as possible a shrill ringing ran through the room. Abby immediately leapt up with a strangled yell, she dove for the phone pulling it up to her ear.

"Hello?" She practically yelled down the phone. Ziva stood up slowly and leant against the desk as Abby's face changed from expected hope and worry to a look of pure excitement. Ziva's eyebrows knitted as she watched Abby's own face light up. It was not until she heard her breath a sigh of relief and mutter Tim's name did Ziva yank the phone out of Abby's hand and yell down it herself.

"Listen, whoever you are you leave Abby alone alright this is not fair on her or anybody else who knew Timothy McGee so if you ever come near her again or contact her I will hunt you down and…" The rest of Ziva's sentence was lost as the man on the other side of the phone finally managed to shout Ziva's name loud enough for her to recognise his voice. Ziva froze a look of shock on her face. Abby in her moment of glee at Ziva's apparent loss of words pulled the phone back towards her own ear and began rambling in to the phone.

"Timmy? It's really you? I thought you rang earlier but I fainted when I heard your voice and then Ziva found me but that doesn't matter. What happened to you? I thought you was dead, everybody thought you was dead we buried you and everything Timmy. You have a grave although it's meant to have your body in it, so who was the guy that I buried? Where are you now anyway, are you coming home? I want to see you."

"I am coming home; it's why I'm allowed to ring you. I've been stuck up in this safe house for the past few weeks. It's horrible I have had nothing to do because they didn't want anybody to know I'm alive."

"Who are they?"

"I'll explain it all when I get back. I'm coming in to NCIS tomorrow. Brian Clements wants to talk to Gibbs, he's CIA. I love you Abby. I've missed you so much."

"I've missed you too. I'm so glad you're alive though I never want to lose you again ever."

Abby and Tim stayed silent for several long minutes listening to each others breathing before one of them spoke.

"I have to go Abby. I'll see you tomorrow. I love you."

"You promise?"

"I promise."

"I love you Timmy."

Abby placed the phone back in place and looked up at Ziva with a large grin on her face.

"You don't know it is him, Abby, this could be a sick prank."

"It's him I recognise his voice."

"We have seen voice production software before. Look, I want it to be him as much as you. I just don't want you to get hurt. Just, until we see him then try not to get too excited ok?"

"Okay, I should go tell Gibbs, Come with me?"

"Don't you have work to do?"

Abby didn't even hear her as she pulled her by her wrist to the elevator she dove in side and hit the button for the bullpen. Ziva leant against the wall watching Abby bounce up and down on her heels. The second the doors opened she ran out a black blur screaming across the floor towards Gibbs desk. Ziva followed slightly more sedately.

"Gibbs! Gibbs! Gibbs!" Abby yelled as she ran towards him, he stood up as she flung her arms around her neck. "Guess-who-just-rang-me-ok-so-you-wont-guess-because-he-is-dead-but-he-isn't-anymore-my-Timmy-Gibbs-he-just-rang-me-he's-alive-he-said-something-about-the-CIA-or-FBI-but-he-is-coming-here-tomorrow-Gibbs-can-you-believe-it?" Abby ran off in one mouthful, while Gibbs just gaped at her.

"She said that a man claiming to be the late Timothy McGee contacted her twice in the past hour. He informed Abby he would be returning here tomorrow sometimes with a CIA escort." Ziva reported in a professional manner as she sat down on her desk, it was clear she didn't believe that he was alive.

"He is Timmy why don't you want to believe that Ziva?"

"I do Abby, I just don't want it to not be him and for you to suffer the pain over again. You didn't deal with losing him once very well, losing him again will tear you apart more."

"It's him. I know it. Don't worry."

The rest of the day passed by uneventfully as Abby struggled to focus on the work she had to do. Gibbs had taken to watching her for a while to try to speed up her work process. This left Tony, Ziva and Lee alone in the bullpen.

"Do you think it's really McGee?" Tony asked the room.

"I hope so for Abby's sake." Ziva replied her eyes not leaving her computer.

"I've been here nearly ten years and this is the most action packed year ever."

"Action packed?" Ziva queried.

"Yeah, like an action film, Its like straight out of a soap opera or something, You came back, Abby got hitched, Jenny came back from the dead, Tim … Gibbs changed rule number twelve."

"He should have changed it to shut up during work hours." Ziva quipped smiling up at Tony.

"Don't hid it Miss David, I know your glad he changed the rules. You couldn't have me otherwise."

Ziva rolled her eyes but struggled to keep her face straight. Her and Tony had been dating since that interesting elevator encounter although now that Tony wanted to spend a lot of his time with Ben he had partially moved in to the David household. Ziva didn't mind in fact she enjoyed having him around all the time. Ben adored Tony and had begun calling him Dad which shocked Tony at first before he started enjoying it. Ziva knew Tony had a photograph of the three of them in his wallet from a trip to the Zoo a few weeks ago, she had the same photo in her own purse.

* * *

The following day Abby was at work before anybody else. Ziva and Tony arrived together ten minutes early an average between Tony's arriving late and Ziva early. Abby was walking up and down in the space between one half of the bullpen and the other. When she heard the elevator ding she looked up but then glanced down in disappointment when she saw who it was. She stood in the centre of the bullpen bouncing on her tiptoes, watching the space in front of her.

"Abby?" Ziva said tentatively when she saw her, Abby slowly looked up, she saw Tony going to sit at his desk.

"You two were holding hands. Finally getting it on then?"

"If it is him Abby, he will be here. We all know he would never let you down on purpose."

"What if its not him though, what if you was right what if…" The rest of Abby's sentence was cut short as the elevator dinged again. The young Goth sprung upright on to her tiptoes and stared as the greying Gibbs stepped out, followed by the old Director of NCIS.

"Hey Abby, Jethro told me what was happening and I thought I'd tag along to work with him." Jenny smiled before hugging Abby who squeezed her back gratefully. Jenny smiled and nodded at Ziva and Tony before going to sit on the edge of Gibbs desk to watch the Goth and her enthusiastic bouncing. Several long moments passed and eventually Gibbs vanished to go and get coffee for everybody.

"Do you want to sit down Abs?" Tony tried as the Goth had been pacing for nearly half an hour, if not longer as they had no idea when she arrived at work that morning; or if she even left the day before.

"No, I can't Tony. I'm waiting for Timmy." Abby had already unceremoniously cleared Agent Lee's belongings away from McGee's desk and had cleared it and re-organised it as it was before McGee had left.

"You can wait and sit." Tony tried but this was only met by a glare. A few minutes passed by until a familiar ping interrupted the silence.

"It'll be Gibbs Abby." Ziva tried to calm the Goth down as she leant over the partition to see who was inside. Ziva wasn't expecting the squeal that she got in her ear that followed Abby's realisation.

"Timmy!" Abby ran full speed towards the elevator. She flew herself on top of her husband who had only just made it out of the elevator and the force of Abby's hug sent them both flying backwards. Tim hit the floor with a thud but he didn't seem to mind as he had just been reunited with his wife.

Gibbs stepped out of the elevator a grin on his face and two trays with five coffee cups and an extra large Caf-Pow. He stepped over the McGee's and walked in to the bullpen. He placed a coffee on everybody's desk, Ziva, Tony, Lee, Tim and his own before giving the last one to Jenny. He left the Caf-Pow on Tim's desk, for Abby to collect.

A man had stepped out of the elevator with Gibbs and McGee and he was now half way up the steps to the director's office, the team ignored him overcome with relief that McGee was not really dead. After Abby had relinquished her hold on him, which was quite a while, he greeted the rest of the team members happily.

"Abby said you didn't believe it was me."

"Right. I didn't want it to be some sick prank."

"You spend too much time around Tony, Ziva." Ziva just smiled before hugging her old friend.

"Did you miss me Probie?" Tony asked with his tell tale grin.

"Did you miss me?"

"A small amount perhaps." He answered.

"He was devastated." Abby chipped in for Tony.

"Boss." McGee nodded. "Glad to be back here again." He and Gibbs shook hands before McGee turned to Jenny.

"Dir-Jenny. I'll get used to it eventually." He grinned as Jenny hugged him with a happy laugh.

Abby hugged McGee again, obviously incredibly happy to get him back in her life. The next few hours passed by in a peaceful yet jovial manner. The man returned to the bullpen eventually to give McGee the all clear; he could now declare himself alive again. Abby had cheered at this before hugging the man she had never met before. The team had laughed at her as the man grinned before exiting he waved at McGee who waved back before he was gone from their lives, putting this mess behind them.

"Yanno Abby, I didn't leave you on purpose, I love you."

"I know; I love you too."

"Wherever you go, I go. Forever."


End file.
